In the more than a month that the Russo-Ukrainian war lasted, NATO members led by Britain and the United States were not idle and have been engaged in things.
First it kicked Russia out of the SWIFT international financial system, and then it banned Russian dollar settlement, withdrew from investment, and restricted trading.
Through various financial means, russia wants to cut off Russia's economic exchanges with the outside world. A series of sanctions tactics have caused the ruble to fall one after another.
At this time, Putin was anxious and officially "declared war" on Europe and the United States.
Since I am not allowed to settle in US dollars.
Good!
From April onwards, if these "unfriendly countries" still want to buy Russian gas, remember to settle it in rubles.
As soon as the news came out, the EUROPEAN Union panicked, why?
It all starts with the dependence of European countries on Russian energy.
1
How important is Russian energy to the EU?
Russia is a major energy exporter, exporting more than half of its fuel and energy products each year.
Where are these energy products mainly sold?
Europe, of course.
Overall, 45% of europe's total gas imports come from Russia.
Three of these countries get all their gas from Russia. In another 13 countries, russian gas accounts for more than 50%.
In particular, Germany, Finland and other central European countries are more dependent on Russia because of geographical factors that make it difficult for them to obtain oil and gas resources from North Africa and the Middle East.
In the case of Germany, 55% of the natural gas imports come from Russia, and the proportion of coal and crude oil imports is not small, at 50% and 35% respectively.
If Russia's oil and gas supply is cut off at once, it will be no small disaster for these heavily dependent countries.
This can also be seen in the reaction of countries after Putin announced the change to ruble settlement.
Britain and the United States, which have sufficient resources, are very resolute and directly cut off business.
And the European countries are clearly panicked. There is no other way but to condemn Russia for not having a spirit of contract.
The United States looked at their ambiguous attitude, patted their chests and said, Isn't it this little gap, imported from me.
I'll start by providing you with an emergency response of 1.5 million cubic meters of LNG.
Soon, a number of U.S. oil and gas producers said that the sudden increase in production was "a bit embarrassing", and the concubines could not do it!
Europe thought to himself: Is this something that cannot be done?
The point is that these amounts can only fill about 10% of the "Russian gap", which is simply not enough to use well!
Eventually they set their sights on Qatar, another country with more energy reserves.
Qatar's natural gas reserves are sufficient, and the proven natural gas reserves are 24.5 trillion cubic meters, ranking third in the world.
However, although the natural gas reserves are sufficient, the amount of gas shipped to Europe is limited.
Because Qatar's current major partners are concentrated in Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, and they have signed long-term contracts, there is no surplus grain to Europe.
So now Europe is in an awkward situation, and it cannot "tear" with Russia, nor can it not "tear" with Russia...
You can only put on an unforgiving quarrel and then secretly exchange rubles behind your back.
They understand that europe cannot be "saved" by one country alone, and that dependence on Russia cannot be cut off at once.
2
Does abandoning big customers have an impact on Russia?
In fact, this move is not only difficult for Europe, but also a "dangerous move" for Russia.
There are concerns that the move will not hit the Russian economy hard. After all, energy exports are the lifeblood of Russia's economy, accounting for more than half of Russia's total exports.
Europe, as Russia's largest buyer, derives 2/3 of its revenue from Europe every year. If you break up with this big customer, the impact on Russia's fiscal revenue is also very large.
In fact, Russia's offshore crude oil exports rose in March, not falling. There is also no significant decrease in customers.
India is hoarding goods like crazy. Its largest refiner, Indian Oil, has bought 3 million barrels of Ural crude oil, ready for delivery in May.
Another Indian state-owned refiner, Hindustan Oil, also bought 2 million barrels of Russian Ural crude, scheduled to be loaded in May.
Turkey continues to buy Russian crude oil and related products and has no plans to stop buying.
The Dutch government continues to import Russian oil. About 30 percent of the oil imported through the Port of Rotterdam comes from Russia.
Russian crude accounts for 14% of the crude imports from The Miro refinery, Germany's largest refinery, and is still in operation as of March 17.
In addition, Italy, Hungary, Poland and other countries continue to use Russian crude oil.
Even after Russia announced the use of the ruble as the settlement currency, India, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries followed suit and increased their purchases.
In this regard, we can only say that resources are king! There is not only one european customer in the world, but Russia's resources are rare.
If the United States does not have the ability to block Russia globally, their energy will not be sold.
European countries have so far not found a perfect alternative.
The EU expects it will take at least seven or eight years to completely wean itself off its dependence on Russian energy. Russia's energy supply is likely to be inseparable during the transition period.
It can be seen that the previous big moves of Europe and the United States still cannot cut off Russia's foreign exchange reserves from the root.
Now there is a breakthrough in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.
The Ukrainian side is willing to maintain its neutral and non-nuclear status and has also promised to renounce joining any military alliance.
Everything went in the direction that Russia expected.
This time, Russia pulled back a round!