The EU has now given its final approval to a legally binding ban on Russian gas imports, pretending this is some grand moral victory. Reuters is reporting that the EU will stop importing Russian LNG by the end of 2026 and ban pipeline gas by September 30, 2027, with some flexibility to extend under certain conditions.
The press constantly frames this as “standing up to Russia,” but in reality, this has been nothing more than a shift from one supplier to another while pretending it is independence. Russia was once supplying over 40% of EU gas. By 2025, they managed to reduce it to around 13%. Yet some countries are still buying Russian energy because you cannot run an industrial economy on ideology. Of course, Hungary and Slovakia opposed this, and Bulgaria abstained. Hungary says it plans to challenge this legally. Centralized power strips individual member states of all autonomy, and all nations must abide by Brussels even if it will lead to financial ruin or war.
The EU’s entire problem is that it is run by politicians who do not understand economics, capital flows, or even basic history. They have no comprehension that the energy cost is the cost of production. When you deliberately raise the cost of energy, you raise the cost of EVERYTHING. That is not “Putin’s inflation.” That is EU inflation, caused by EU policy.
I warned that sanctions would trigger disruptions and excuses for supply cuts, and that Europe would be the one paying the price. The EU is heading into a depression because of its own deliberate policy decisions. Net Zero, sanctions, eliminating nuclear energy, attacking farmers, destroying industry, regulating everything to death, and now pretending you can just ban the energy inputs that built modern Europe.
Europe is banning Russian gas not because it makes economic sense, but because the EU has turned policy into religion and demands ideological conformity.