Despite warnings that European Union member-states face riots as a result of energy insecurity, a major bloc bigwig has insisted the EU is “not afraid” of Moscow cutting off its gas supply.
The prospect of Moscow cutting the EU off from its essential supply of Russian gas reportedly does not scare bigwigs in Brussels, with the bloc’s economic commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, claiming it is “not afraid” of any decision Russian leader Vladimir Putin makes.
This is seemingly despite the fact that there have been warnings within the EU that some member-states could face public unrest and riots over energy insecurity, with a cold and chaotic winter of unaffordable gas and power cuts feared to be in the bloc’s near future.
Such a possibility has since only begun to look more and more likely, with Russia taking the decision to disable its Nord Stream I pipeline to the EU for the foreseeable future over the weekend, potentially jeopardising one of the bloc’s most important supplies of gas.
According to a report by Reuters, while Commissioner Gentiloni says he wants Vladimir Putin’s government to fulfil its commitments on delivering gas to the EU as set out in already signed contracts, a Russian decision to renege on existing agreements does not scare the bloc.
“We are not afraid of Putin’s decisions,” the news organisation notes Gentiloni as saying.
“We ask them to respect their contracts but if they don’t we are ready to react,” the former Italian prime minister claimed.
The economics tsar is said to have pointed towards relatively high gas storage in the EU, as well as the bloc’s plan to dramatically reduce energy usage, as evidence for his claim that the bloc will be able to weather whatever Putin throws at it.
However, other EU officials seem nowhere near as hopeful as their colleague in Brussels, with a number of major figures in Germany and France having now warned that their nations could see public unrest over the dire energy situation.
Such warnings have been at their most extreme in Germany, where officials given the responsibility of protecting the integrity of the modern democratic state have expressed concerns the public could riot over being unable to adequately heat their homes over the winter.
Furthermore, bigwigs have also expressed concern that those on the populist right could see a sizable increase in support during the crisis, with one official going so far as to brand members of the public active in challenging years of government mismanagement as “enemies of the state“.
Things are not much better for the EU’s nearest allies in the Russo-Western sanctions war, with the likes of the United Kingdom also seeing warnings of future violence. One senior trade union official in Britain even said that sentiment in the country was now at the level of public disquiet seen during the poll tax riots of Margaret Thatcher’s era.
More recently, Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer has warned that radical change in Britain is needed to get the country’s population through the winter.
“For the first time in living memory, simply heating your home, going to the shops or filling up the car are sources of anxiety for millions of people,” he wrote in an op-ed published late on Saturday.
“The centre is not holding,” he continued. “Things, it feels, are falling apart.”