Gas supply problems in EU may lead to change of European governments
Andrey Kortunov pointed out that to resolve the issue of gas supplies to Europe, Russia tried to appeal to the launch of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but political difficulties still prevail over economic ones
The ongoing problems with gas supplies to Europe may lead to an aggravation of the political crisis on the continent and even to a change in the current governments, according to experts.
“If the economic situation worsens, if inflation rises, if Europe finds itself in a state of recession, then this may lead to a drop in the popularity of the current governments and, possibly, to their replacement. As a matter of fact, this process is already underway in Europe,” said Andrey Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council.
He added that to resolve the issue of gas supplies to Europe, Russia tried to appeal to the launch of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but political difficulties still prevail over economic ones.
“Political obstacles turned out to be stronger than economic feasibility, so the issue is not being resolved. Apparently, the total volume of gas that Russia will supply to its customers in the EU will continue to be much less than expected,” he said. The expert doubts that some anti-Russian sanctions will be eased to resolve the energy crisis.
Aleksey Grivach, Deputy General Director at the National Energy Security Fund, believes that Europeans have already reduced gas consumption.
“Prices still actually destroyed the economic cost and economic attractiveness of industrial production in the European Union, not to mention the production of electricity from gas. In fact, this works for their policy of reducing consumption. So they are ready to sacrifice consumers with their policy,” he told.
Speaking about the chance of resolving the gas situation in Europe, Grivach noted that it would depend on many factors, adding that European countries have made their energy system “weather-dependent”.
“The specific balance is very difficult to predict, because many factors affect, from weather conditions and current gas consumption, the availability of other alternative sources. There is a very complex model, it is very susceptible to weather influence.
In general, the system is increasingly dependent on the weather, because the share of weather-dependent energy sources is growing. Europeans have made their system “weather-dependent,” the expert said.
