Morteza Makki – expert on European issues

The goal of these sanctions was to force Moscow to withdraw from the occupied territories of Ukraine and end the war in this country. But despite the extensive European sanctions, the expectations of Brussels and Washington for the change of Russian policies in Ukraine did not happen. Russia immediately shifted its energy market from Europe to East and South Asia. Russia’s cheap and underpriced oil had a lot of demand in both India and China. The two powers of East and South Asia have the world’s highest economic growth and an increasing need for cheap energy to continue their growth. Of course, the sanctions against Russia left a short-term and long-term impact on the European energy market. For several decades, the Europeans were sure of the continuation of cheap and accessible energy supply from Russia, and this factor prevented the issue of energy from entering into these tensions, even at the height of political and economic tensions.

It should be noted that energy plays a decisive role in European countries’ production cycle and economic growth. Europe imports most of its energy needs from outside the continent, and Russia has been one of Europe’s main energy suppliers for the past few decades. The cutoff of Russian gas and oil exports to Europe caused a multiple jump in the price of gas in this continent. As a clean energy source, gas plays a significant role in meeting European governments’ domestic and industrial needs. The increase in energy prices caused a rise in production costs and reduced people’s purchasing power and livelihood in most European countries. Therefore, with the drop in economic growth and a surge in inflation, dissatisfaction continued on a wide scale in Europe.

One reason the people of many European countries tend to the extreme right parties is their dissatisfaction with their government’s economic performance. Although the European governments were able to meet some of their needs by buying LNG gas from the United States and Qatar, LNG gas is much more expensive than Russian natural gas, and this factor has made the issue of energy a significant concern for the European people and governments.

Although the European governments were able to manage and control the energy crisis by buying LNG gas from America and Qatar and, in a way, by developing Norway’s gas resources, controlling the energy crisis is possible at the cost of increasing inflation and reducing economic growth in most European countries. and naturally, these two issues have left their disappointment at different levels in European countries.

In the meantime, the Russians also suffered extensive losses from the widespread sanctions of Europe.

For several decades, Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland have easily delivered Russian gas to the European market. Still, the interruption of these pipelines, especially the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline explosion, will incur heavy costs imposed on this country. Instead of sending cheap gas through pipelines, Moscow had to strengthen its shipping lines. However, it should not be overlooked that in this way, Russia recovered from the shock of losing the European energy market and found new markets in Asia.