SHOT: French demand for Russian natural gas has been on the rise for the last four years. The upward trend continues in the current year as well. From January 1 through June 5, 2019, Gazprom’s gas supplies to France totaled 5.8 billion cubic meters, an increase of 5.6 per cent from the same period of 2018. In 2018, Gazprom supplied to France 12.9 billion cubic meters of gas, an increase of 5.4 per cent against 2017 (12.3 billion cubic meters).
CHASER: Russian natural gas flows to France via pipeline from Germany have ceased. Russia’s Gazprom will reduce gas supply to Italy by 50 percent today, says the energy company Eni.
I wonder how the politicians in Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden who threw away their nations’ neutrality in order to participate in those stunningly self-destructive sanctions are feeling now? The presumably unintended consequences have boomeranged so horrifically on the neoliberal economies that they could not unreasonably be charged with being Russian agents.