We look at how the Ukraine war is contributing to an energy crisis across Europe with Greek politician and economist Yanis Varoufakis. Last week Russia announced it would not resume sending natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, blaming Western sanctions for supposed maintenance delays keeping the gas shut off. Prior to the war, Russia supplied Europe with 40% of its natural gas, but now European nations must find ways to cope with fuel shortages and soaring energy prices as winter approaches. Varoufakis says a history of market liberalization and reliance on cheap Russian gas has left the continent scrambling, in turn pushing up energy costs in the Global South as richer European countries buy up other sources of energy. “Yet again, Europe is exporting misery to the rest of the world,” says Varoufakis, a member of the Greek Parliament and former finance minister. His latest piece for Project Syndicate is “Time to Blow Up Electricity Markets.”

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    15 Comments

    1. Not a very smart take from Varoufakis. Every working market has some abstractions and regulations, otherwise it would always become a monopoly. This is nothing new and/or bad.

    2. it's not an energy crisis,. it's a situation created by profiteering by energy companies making record breaking profits (46 billion in 3 months) and increasing the prices because of the conflict in ukraine, governments are allowing this situation because they also reap the benefits of increased consumer pricing through taxation.
      The USA's Nuclear energy is completely reliant on refined uranium rods from Russia (excluded from sanctions) or china.

    3. Russia has right now about 11,900 sanctions on it only about 2,000 were place on it after the war started so it’s fair to say NATO and the west were always gunning for the fall of Russia.

    4. it boils down to supply and demand. If you don't wish to sell, you go broke.. And down goes Russia. Makes me smile. Go after the Saudi's. They owe everyone !!!

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