but we are where we are. the german chancellor scholz says if germany was to cut off the gas taps from russia tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of germans would be thrown out of work. do you really believe that is a politically viable option for a country like germany? let me stop you there.
they worry russia will seek to undermine national and energy security across europe through nord stream. and ukraine, well president zelensky says he thinks putin will use nord stream as a dangerous political tool. nord stream 1 already bypassed ukraine, add another pipeline and ukraine stands to lose hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars of gas transit fees that it used to get from russia when it transported gas through ukraine. russia s gain, ukraine s loss. with tensions between the two countries, the u.s. and uk among others have seen nord stream as a bargaining chip, or a point of political pressure to exert on putin to try and deter aggression. at least until the gas taps turn on. all right, bianca, thank you for white boarding that for us. in spite of weeks of diplomatic efforts, concerns over a potential russian invasion of ukraine remain. while both countries are primed to hold military drills and exercises tomorrow, for those who are living near the ukrainian bord
of brent crude oil, the industry benchmark, up to $112 a barrel, its highest level since 2014. we are seeing sharp upward spikes in the natural gas market as well. in the past few minutes the price of european natural gas has hit a record high. although the sanctions that the west has imposed on russia do not cover the energy sector, there is fear in the energy market that the sanctions will do at some point or russia may decide to retaliate against european nations by turning off the gas taps even though it is earning billions of dollars a month by selling gas in particular to eu nations, so there is fear among energy market investors, and there was an attempt yesterday by a lot of nations to try to calm the markets by saying that governments around the world will release 60 million barrels of oil from their various strategic reserves, and that frankly hasn t worked. , . ~ ,
the uae and the saudis to do more. so far they haven t. but here in europe, jake, there s also problems. today president putin threatened to turn off the gas taps to europe if they don t pay in rubles. the europeans say we ain t doing that. if we do that, we re breaking our own sanctions. so all in all, oil is the fighting ground because it s the political pressure, it heats their homes, it drives their cars, it flies their planes. and putin knows he s got us where he wants us at the moment. richard, on top of all of this, a new report from the department of commerce here in the u.s. shows that inflation in the u.s. hit a 40-year high in february and that we should note that is the single biggest issue for 55% of americans according to a brand new kaiser poll. that s almost 40 points ahead of feelings about russia s invasion
Andrei Martyanov Analyses the Current Moment in Europe and the World – The Greanville Post greanvillepost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greanvillepost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.