Should the EU introduce a new round of sanctions against Russia? In the wake of shocking evidence of apparent war crimes perpetrated by Russian troops in Ukraine, EU leaders are calling for another round of sanctions. Should an energy import ban be considered this time? Oil and gas exports to the EU are a vital source of hard currency for Russia, yet some Member States (including Germany, but also smaller countries such as Slovakia and Hungary) are heavily dependent on Russian gas.
What do our readers think? We had a comment sent in by Thierry, who worries about the economic cost of an additional round of sanctions:
Sanctions against Russia? Is Europe prepared to pay the ‘extra’ Energy cost associated with it? This is madness…
To get a reaction, we put Thierry’s comment to Claudia Gamon, an Austrian MEP who sits with the liberal Renew Europe Group, and is a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. You can see her response in the video at the top of this page.
Should the EU impose new sanctions against Russia? Should sanctions be expanded to include oil and gas? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions!
IMAGE CREDITS: BigStock – (c) elenarostunova
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
90 comments Post a commentcomment
I would confirm first what really happened. There are strong rumors that it was staged.
Pedro Jesus, shut up troll.
There is no advantage whatsoever for Russia to do something like that. Quite the opposite… Qui bono ?
Yes please!
Why is this even a question?Should have we distanced ourselves from Russia when it invaded Moldova in 1992? Yes. Should have we distanced ourselves from Russia when it levelled Groznîi in 1999? Yes. Should have we distanced ourselves from Russia when it invaded Georgia in 2008? Yes. Should have we distanced ourselves from Russia when it invaded Ukraine in 2014? Yes. Don’t you see the pattern? O_o
Yes
New sanctions for what? Atrocities will have to be investigated and suspects identified. There are juridicial processes for that. I’d rather leave it to them to judge.What is important is crippeling the Russian war effort. Deny them the capability to build new weapons and repair damaged ones. Cutting Russian gas and oil seems to be the obvious step. It also shows us our limits on acting sensible. No one doubts that this would hurt the Russian economy really badly, but it would also leave us unable to move on. Alternatives cannot be pulled out of the hat instantly.
EU should try to stop the war and not escalate it. EU is victimizing their own citizens just because escalates a war that should stop, instead. Stop the war means:Stop NATO from extending to the EastStop Russia from fighting Ukraine.Stop Ukraine civil war since 2014 and respect Minsk agreement or make another one.
Dimitris Kitsanelis not sure what you are smoking…but it’s probably gone bad
Peace talks. No other way.
YES YES YES!!!
Η Ευρώπη και το ΝΑΤΟ πρέπει να σταματήσουν αυτή τη βαρβαρότητα με κάθε τρόπο.Ακόμα κι αν χρειαστεί να βομβαρδίσουν το Κρεμλίνο.
Sanctions will bring EU on its knees… and have little or no effect on Russia… STOP them now
The EU are traitors. They do not serve citizens. They serve agendas.
This is the problem of liberal democracy. Liberal means only the capital, people is responsible to caste vote. Democracy not for the well being of the people is not a democracy.
Russian massacre? So you’ve actually attended the scene with experts and verified that Russia was solely to blame. Otherwise this is just a pathetic click bait title barely worth the effort to type this but definitely not to be debated.
Yeah we don’t care what is the reason to add more sanctions, even fakes like what is spread our one-sided propagandistic media ♂️ Why we even bother to search a reason? Why not just admit that we are in war with Russia, an economic war that has nothing to do with whatever happens around? And the war with ourselves, have you seen what is happening with the prices for literally everything?
People get use to brain- washed are incapable to reason. Europe has reason panicking of its own decline!
Who believes fake news?
We should reinform Russians people
YES!!’
A full embargo. What else? It’s a small price to pay to bite the bullet and get off our addiction to gas, oil and coal. We need to do it to stop Putin while we can. We also must do it to stand a chance to sustain a liveable planet. The timing could not be better (or maybe I should say: better late than sorry)
Have you any concrete evidence for your accusation of Putin? The Russians was the allied force to fight Nazi Germany in World War II. “Commentary: Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem”
By Josh Cohen, Commentaryhttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary-idUSKBN1GV2TY
Sanctions have a dramatic rebound effect.
Why did UK rejected Russia’s request to hold a meeting on the events in Ukraine’s Bucha? It is obviously clear that Russian’s murdering of Ukrainians at Bucha is another Hollywood cinema: >>> https://tass.com/world/1432333?utm_source=google.com…
This shocked the world too! How about this? Should the EU impose sanctions against the US without any investigation? https://nypost.com/…/hunter-biden-played-role-in…/
Hearsay is sufficient for the conviction of Russia?Hope that EU is not brain dead as NATO.
Both Ukraine and Europe are losers in this Russia and Ukraine conflict. “US ramps up oil imports from Russia, pursues own interests at expense of European allies amid Ukraine crisis” , by Wang Wenwen and Hu Yuwei https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1257500.shtml
Other than sanctions, political leaders of EU cannot think of other means for peace? Infected by NATO and become brain-dead too? Sanctions cannot stop war but punish EU citizens.
https://www.scmp.com/…/ukraine-war-ursula-von-der…
Europe is shocking the world also. Why people are not asking why Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen and other people inspecting corpses at Bucha were not wearing mask. How come these corpses not rotten after the Russians had moved out from the area at least 8 days before?
What is urgently need to do is an investigation organized by the UN with non-combatting countries not by countries sanctioning Russia for they have conflict of interest.
If you people want to see a real massacre, it is better to google the Nangking massacre. People would only have their hands tied when murdered in mass. With the very few photos I can access on the internet, some photos and a video in Bucha showed that “corpses” were scattered orderly along the street which is sufficiently wide to aloud vehicle to pass. If unarmed civilians were shot by armed soldiers along the street indiscriminately this way, they would not need to have arms tied.
We have seen some video on the dead bodies along the street were with hand tied. If these people were unarmed civilians killed by armed soldiers, why needed to tie the hands? Even more ridiculous is that hands were tied with snow white things…! Were these “dead bodies” hands tied after they were shot?
Obviously yes
Stop making the situation worse. Just find a peace solution now. We don’t want more war. We don’t want more sanctions. We want peace.
Declaration of war. I see no other way.
Ukraine is recruiting volunteers to fight the Russian. If you believe this is a “holy war’, you can go to join the fight. Do not fool others to die with you.
Abolish all foolish sanctions to save European economy and avoid spreading of poverty. Only sane road is peaceful negotiations and ceasefire
Sanctions are killing EU economies.
You are using collective punishment against the Russian people, which is particularly hypocritical bc at the same time you claim that their leader is a dictator, ie they are not in a position to choose him. How anyone, let alone our civilized EU, could support these unlawful, genocidal, collective punishment measures is beyond me.
NO. Sanctions r hurting the EU first….
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/10/cd/57/10cd5702d013d727e72dbbd43e8ec9ec.gif
[PHOTO] https://external.fslz4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?w=396&h=396&url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F10%2Fcd%2F57%2F10cd5702d013d727e72dbbd43e8ec9ec.gif&ext=jpg&utld=pinimg.com&_nc_oe=703c7&_nc_sid=867500&_nc_o2e=1&ccb=3-6&_nc_hash=AQEoTYLPYRg_Kdrf
Until such time as russia withdraws from All ukraine territory it has invaded and illegally annexes it should continue to be a pariah state excluded from all Western finance and technology. Europe must end all fossil fuel purchases from them.
Of course! They should be forced to pay for the damages in Ukraine!So… many years of travels, flights bans … etc. restrictions!Unfortunately russian population is supporting their government, far too few do something against it!
Europeans should had never been in business with Russia, because they had embargo and we had to not pay billions of euro to make rich a cruel dictatur which invested in military and nuclear weapons!Europeans should stop paying for their own graves!
sure, new sanctions should come, until Russia is occupying Ukraine. And even after war, EU should minimize its dependency on this aggressive country, to avoid any blackmailing in the future
The climate requires it anyway, in case you forgot, so stopping oil and gas and coal addiction seems judicious no matter what. Although the science is a little ambivalent: it could already be too late.
Please check how much US aid can go to Ukraine hand. The US is creating a debt trap to control Ukraine after the war, if Ukraine can survive as a country. EU imposing sanction against Russia would only help to strengthen US control on European states rather regaining sovereignty and independence.
If Ukraine has not helped the US to establish so many biochemical laboratory threatening Russia and Europe security, if Ukraine has stood firm its establishment promise and remain a neutral state, it would not threaten Russia and invited pre-emptive military action of Putin. There is no reason to support Ukraine by imposing sanction against Russia without investigating into details of these biochemical laboratories. Europe ought to pressurize for a cease fire and request for UN investigation into biochemical laboratories activities in Ukraine. More importantly, what is the role of Biden’s son and these biochemical laboratories.
A very shocking speech from British Bishop Richard Williams who has given a very honestly descripted picture on what going through between Russia and Ukraine, which is exactly what we onlookers of the global political development come to understand since the end of the Cold War. European people ought to use their brain rather then ears to examine this conflict, to think independently as a rational being: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTHCtBl2DWY&t=0s
Dissolve EU now
Stop looking at Russia and look and forget Europe. Europe is transferring blood to Ukraine and external power at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Europe would fall before Ukraine as we can see. Germany is destroying its world class industrial power and at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the America is trying to rebuild its industry with resources, labour and investment from East Asia, India and Australia. However, EU Parliament has destroyed its investment agreement with China. EU is killing itself when China is trying to avoid trading with the US and turned to Euro, Euro is sanctioning Russia, billions of China Russia trading agreements are forced to use renminbi. As Russia is forced to turn to the Chinese, we see a sudden rise of e-commerce with Chinese flocking to try new taste from Russia. I seriously think that the most vocal voice pressurizing Europe to sanction Russia oil are helping to kill Europe.
EU should first impose sanctions against Turkey for the occupation of Cyprus, an EU member State, for violation of the human rights of EU citizens (Cypriots) and for its crimes against the Cypriot EU citizens, and then to start worrying about third countries.
So the Ukrainian army shells the nuclear power plant so, because of that, you,think Russia deserves further sanctions?
Are you at all aware of the fact that it’s Ukrainian army who shells the nuclear plant, since it’s under Russian control ?
BOO PUTINs PROPAGANDA! BOO LIES!!
So you think the plant is under Ukranian control and Russia is shelling it?
Ukraines have not reasons to shell at it!
After the international conventions, soldiers should not use this power plants as war targets! So Russian soldiers should not be there at all for any reasons!
UN happens to have recognized that the shelling is done by Ukranians. Under Moscow’s request there was a UN security meeting and inpectors are going there, so we shall wait and see.
pls do no lie 1) it is not evident who is shelling and 2) russians donot allow inspectors to go there: https://www.bloomberg.com/…/russia-stalls-on-un-access…
EU needs to imprison all European Parliament politicians who voted to support the neonazis in Ukraine, and all EC members should face life in prison.
We should have had a total embargo up already. But some got addicted to the Russian ressources.
Yes!Russian soldiers act uncivilized and barbaric in Ukraine, they also put the life of many people in danger!UN forces should had been protecting these nuclear plants from right beginning of the war!
We are destroying and making our life dificult for what. This is not working at all… Rússia money is more valuable as never was before, their oil exports are driving…. We punish our selfs…. Masoquists…
Yawn…. What have we achieved so far with all the sanctions? Sit down and talk please and finish this..
No, this is a circus and we’re all idiots if we think that the most powerful nations on the planet, i.e. us, the EU, the collective West, are incapable of bringing peace to the table and stop this. Peace was simply, never an option. We want hegemony and will gamble everything in order to achieve it. It’s a march of insanity and it will be us, those without offshore accounts, not listed in the Panama Papers – whose author we murdered by the way – who will pay the price. As usual.
Your sanctions are the worst things you did to please your american master
Sanction of Russia equal to sanctioning the whole Europe if politicians are not braindead as we can see the escalating social unrest and instability will soon arrive if stupid politicians are still working for MAGA by turning a blind eye to all difficulties confronting so many citizens. I would consider these bewitching politicians are betraying Europe.
Ursula should be in prison!
Of course!!! Big mistake that it was not succed a lot for many years!
Yes. Progressively more as long as it takes them to withdraw from Ukraine.