Irish Examiner View: Europe must up the ante on Russian sanctions

Countries such as India probably calculates that if Europe is still prepared to buy energy from Russia, then why on earth shouldn’t they?

Russian president Vladimir Putin’s calculation that the West collectively lacks the resolve to challenge his dominance of the energy markets has been proven correct so far. Picture: Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

When the European Council meets today, with Joe Biden in attendance, senior politicians must face the reality that sanctions have failed to curb Russia’s murderous assaults on a civilian population.

Russia has not yet defaulted on its sovereign debt, despite predictions to the contrary. It is feeling sufficiently bullish, despite a significant loss of the rouble’s international value, to reopen the Moscow Stock Exchange for bond transactions. Fossil fuel revenues are still flowing in, and there is growing disunity on further action, led by the Germans and the Dutch, with the Italians tucked into their slipstream.