Every time there were more calls to sanction Russia, I would point out the hypocrisy of importing Russian oil.
Now, President Trump is making the same point.
But Europe won’t do it. Instead Europe will go on demanding that all measures be taken. With one exception.
I pointed out back in 2022 that Ukraine and Europe were both benefiting from this hypocritical arrangement in which they demanded sanctions on almost everything.
Lego announced a pause on shipments of toy bricks to Russia. Nike has closed all its stores preventing Muscovites from purchasing $75 t-shirts made by Vietnamese slave labor. Airbnb will no longer rent dachas, Netflix won’t allow Russians access to its library of social justice pedophilia, and Blizzard has announced Russians can’t battle orcs in World of Warcraft.
In his virtual session with the Japanese parliament, Zelensky told legislators that it was “necessary to remove companies from the Russian market so that money does not go to the Russian army.” In his abrasive address to Israel’s Knesset, the leader of a country that remains a major trading partner of Iran stormed, “Why has Israel refrained from sanctions on Russia? Israel needs to give answers to these questions and after that, live with them.”
A more elementary question may be why is Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state owned gas company, continuing to transport millions of cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe each month.
One answer is that Russia continues paying billions to Ukraine to transport its gas.
Russia cashes in an estimated $400 million a day from its gas exports to Europe.
Previous efforts to sanction Russian oil in America ran into opposition from the Biden administration.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Biden administration was actively lobbying Senate Dems against supporting Senator Ted Cruz’s bill to sanction Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Now it’s back in action fighting against any effort to block Russian oil even as Biden claims that he’s doing everything to stop Putin.
Biden administration officials pressured some Democratic senators not to support bipartisan legislation by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would ban oil and gas imports from Russia, Senate Democratic aides told Axios.
The White House on Friday signaled it is open to reducing the import of Russian oil — without saying exactly how.
By the numbers: Oil from Russia accounted for roughly 3% of U.S. crude imports in 2021.
Now, President Trump is cutting to the chase. If the Europs really want to sanction Russia, then stop buying its oil or shut up already.
