Peace demonstration against the war in Ukraine in Mannheim.
(Photo: IMAGO/UJ Alexander)
Every tank of petrol and every degree more in the apartment also finances Vladimir Putin’s war. Every day, Western consumers fill the Moscow potentate’s war chest with around 700 million euros from his oil and gas sales alone.
The income he earns from this brings him the money to build tanks, to pay his soldiers and, last but not least, for his apparatus of repression at home, which he uses to prevent anti-war protests.
Now the individual motorist or gas customer can at least help make the war more difficult for Putin simply by using less fuel. A really effective step would be to stop all oil and gas imports from Russia to the West.
Or if Russia bans all payment transactions in dollars, euros, yen, pounds and francs, i.e. the so-called euro and dollar clearing is banned. Then even hard currency proceeds would be effectively useless.
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So far, Russian oil and gas suppliers still get dollars and euros in accounts with Gazprombank, for example. These transfers would be worthless if clearing was no longer possible for Russian institutions.
Skeptical view of NATO military support for Ukraine
These are still theoretical discussions. Because the fear of the direct consequences for the citizens is too great. Many are then no longer able to heat or drive a car without restrictions. Many chemicals cannot be produced. No steel can be boiled. An end to Russian oil and gas supplies would have severe consequences for Germany. No question.
But one thing is pretty sure to come: the horrifying images of cities being shot up, of world heritage sites like Kiev’s Cave Monastery, of more and more dead in ruins.
If you want to see what’s in store for Kyiv, Kharkiv, maybe Odessa and Lviv today, look at the pictures from Grozny or Aleppo. Putin has never shied away from mass murder of defenseless and innocent people.
He wants to break Ukraine like he broke the resistance in Chechnya and Syria: ruthlessly, deliberately destructive and deterrently brutal. These images will shake us and make us helplessly angry.
Anyone who is skeptical about NATO military support for Ukraine, because that could result in a nuclear war, may end up asking themselves: aren’t the costs of stopping Russian energy imports bearable after all?
More: Price shock on the oil and gas markets: is a global recession now imminent?