It has also tightened entry rules for Russian citizens and shut all but one border checkpoint with its neighbor. The moves saw trade between the two countries drop to $1.5 billion in 2024, compared with $11 billion in pre-conflict 2021.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a plan to phase out Russian oil and gas by 2027 under the REPowerEU strategy, aimed at accelerating the shift to renewables.
Numerous EU countries and politicians have described the agreement as lopsided and damaging to the bloc’s interests.
Commenting on the US-EU deal, Putin claimed that the EU had essentially lost its political sovereignty and that this directly leads to losing economic independence.
The new EU-US trade agreement is an economic and political fiasco that undermines the bloc’s sovereignty, veteran French politician Marine Le Pen has said.
‘There are few examples in history of a political goal, bringing an adversary to its knees economically and wreaking havoc in a warlike manner, backfiring so completely.
The Bank of America’s stunning admission that the Russian ruble is this year’s best-performing currency may be the result of someone in that organization being ‘fed up with years of self-deluding, misrepresentative, and simply incorrect reporting about Russia economically,’ financial analyst Paul Goncharoff tells Sputnik.
A similar letter was sent to the crestfallen European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, indicating that 30% is ‘far less than what is needed to eliminate the Trade Deficit disparity’ between the US and the EU.
‘It is very difficult to agree to that. But we also live in reality. What alternatives do we have, both Ukraine and we? To fight Russia endlessly? Such an approach will probably lead to great human losses for all of us and serious damage to our economies,’ he argued.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea have been inactive since 2022 due to EU sanctions and sabotage, which Russia insists was orchestrated by Western intelligence agencies.
‘The forced, artificially ideological-based exclusion of natural gas, crude oil, and nuclear fuel originating from Russia will lead to severe price increases in Europe, seriously harming the sovereignty of European countries, and cause major difficulties for European companies,
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