PUTIN'S WEAPONISED
ENERGY
Vladimir Putin stands behind Europe’s rising energy prices and is using his country’s resources to further his terrorist ends.
Make no mistake: Russia’s energy blackmail is a deliberate and fully conscious act.
The Putin-induced energy crisis has been ongoing since 2021. It was significantly worsened in February 2022, as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The crisis is aimed at destabilising the West, creating chaos and, more recently, turning public opinion in European countries against Ukraine.
Russia has the world's largest natural gas reserves and is the largest exporter of natural gas. It is also the second largest exporter of oil and the third largest exporter of coal.
Even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Gazprom gradually began reducing the volume of natural gas sales to European customers. Western storage facilities were drained as pipeline flows fell to zero.
The Kremlin exerts a significant influence on the price of Europe’s natural gas, holding reins on all the largest suppliers to the EU.
Russia lied its way into the invasion and has lied ever since. Gazprom is Russia, make no mistake. It has no choice but to lie in chorus with Putin.
Mark Dixon, founder of the Moral Rating Agency
Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2,000 for 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and deputy chair of Russia's security council, 22 February 2022
In response to Putin's criminal invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, Europe imposed harsh economic sanctions on Moscow
As winter drew in, the Kremlin reduced the EU’s energy supply almost to zero, compounding the drastic increase in prices on the European market.
Overall, this amounts to the largest commodity shock we’ve experienced since the 1970s.
Indermit Gill, a World Bank vice - president
RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION
DEEPENS ENERGY
CRISIS
Europe is being flooded by a wave of fake news about the energy crisis.
Russia's goal is to sow fear, discord and paralysis that undermines democratic institutions and critical Western alliances such as NATO and the EU.
Cory Gardner, former U.S. senator
Moscow is disseminating false and misleading information in an attempt to scare Poles into believing the energy crisis is much more serious than it really is. It wants to amplify people’s worries about potential problems in the electricity, gas and coal supply and even serious blackouts.
The aim of Russia’s disinformation campaign is to rouse such fear of prices and shortages that the west will destabilise and our societies erupt into social unrest
Sharing disinformation, especially about issues concerning energy, is a means to Russia's strategic ends, which is why it's so important to understand what's really going on
We know from experience that Russia tends to ramp up its disinformation efforts in times of social tension. (...) Disinformation campaigns often have a great effect on the human psyche.
Pia Lamberty, social psychologist, CeMAS
DECADES OF MISGUIDED
EUROPEAN POLICIES HAVE
LED TO DEPENDENCE ON RUSSIAN ENERGY
Countries by billion of cubic meters imported from Russia
Source: IEA. Szacunki na 2021
In terms of foreign suppliers, Russian gas was simply the cheapest. Rather than diversifying suppliers, routes to import Russian gas were diversified
Tim Schittekatte, research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative
Germany's process of becoming dependent on Russian gas began back in 1970, when the construction of the first major gas pipeline between the Soviet Union and Germany was negotiated. The decision was part of "Ostpolitik," a policy initiated by Willy Brandt to bring Germany closer to Eastern Bloc countries.
Norbert Plesser, head of the gas department at the Economy Ministry, said at the time that Germany would never agree to rely on supplies from Russia for even 10 percent of its supplies.
To speak of the Federal Republic’s economic dependence on Moscow to a degree large enough to affect foreign policy indicates ignorance or malice.
German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1980.
For decades, Germany has pursued a policy of "Wandel Durch Handel" toward Russia, that is, political influence exercised through economic relations. In 2020, just 50 years after the decision was made to pump blue fuel from the Soviet Union to Germany, Russia accounted for more than half of the natural gas supply and roughly one-third of the oil burned to heat homes and power factories and vehicles throughout Germany.
In 2011, the Nord Stream pipeline connecting the two countries was opened. Just three years later, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Despite this violation of international law, an agreement was signed in 2015 to build Nord Stream 2 and for Gazprom to take over German gas storage facilities, putting control of German energy reserves in the hands of a foreign power.
All this happened despite repeated warnings from Central and Eastern European countries. As
predicted by many experts from Poland and the countries of the region, Germany's policy of
rapprochement with Russia ended up becoming a tool of aggression, blackmail and extortion by
Moscow.
The German government bowed to industry forces pressing for cheap gas “all too easily”, while “completely ignoring the geopolitical risks”
Norbert Röttgen, a former environment minister and member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union (CDU)
Germany failed to listen to the warnings from countries that had once suffered under Russia’s occupation, such as Poland and the Baltic states.
Annalena Baerbock, German foreign minister,
We must acknowledge how naive we have been about Russia and how mistaken we have been in our ideas about Russia’s actions. We should have listened more closely to our friends from the Baltic States and Poland, who have lived under Soviet rule. Together, we are now paying a high price for our dependence on Russian energy.
Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President.
I was wrong, we were all wrong.
Wolfgang Schäuble, the former German finance minister.
My adherence to Nord Stream 2 was clearly a mistake. We held on to bridges that Russia no longer believed in, and that our partners warned us about.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president and the greatest German advocate of the trade “bridge” between east and west.
EU REGULATIONS AND
THEIR IMPACT ON ENERGY PRICES
Up to one-fifth of the increase in energy prices can be
attributed to the level of the cost of
emission allowances.
Frans Timmermans, the European Commission Vice-President in charge of EU climate policy
When energy prices began to rise dramatically in 2021, Poland was the first to call for the suspension of the ETS for the duration of the crisis. It did so again in August 2022.
For many years we have been calling for the Union's energy policy to be adapted to the specific characteristics of each country. So that the energy transition is carried out in a fair and wise manner. At present, it is necessary to reform the ETS system and, as an industry, we call for an end to the speculative nature of this mechanism.
Wojciech Dąbrowski, President of the Management Board of PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna
THE POLISH RESPONSE
TO RUSSIA'S ENERGy
BLACKMAIL
For years, Poland has been aware of the dangers of dependence on Russian raw materials and has been taking the necessary steps to diversify its energy sources and thus ensure its energy independence.
In March 2022, Warsaw called for sanctions on Russian gas, oil and coal, which are Russia's main sources of income. Poland's Permanent Representative to the EU, Andrzej Sados, argued that as long as the EU does not stop buying raw materials from Russia, it will continue to finance Putin's war in Ukraine.
After criticizing the EU for incomplete sanctions against Russia, the Polish government decided not to wait for the entire EU to react and struck out alone with a unilateral decision to stop importing Russian energy sources on a national level. In late March, Warsaw decided to ban the import of Russian coal. Previously, Poland had imported about 8 million tons of the resource from Russia, which accounted for about 20 percent of the country's annual consumption
Not much later, when Putin tried to force Europe to pay for gas in rubles, Poland rejected the blackmail. As a result, on April 27 Moscow stopped pumping gas to Poland contracted under the Yamal agreement.
It should be noted, however, that Poland began pursuing a policy of diversifying its supply
sources long before the Russian attack on Ukraine. So when Russia tried to blackmail Europe into stopping its support for Kyiv, Poland continued the diversification process, securing multiple energy suppliers and energy independence from Russia.
The government was able to do this without waiting for the European Union to make a decision. The issue can be interpreted as involving national security, and these are excluded from the clauses of the common trade policy.
Artur Novak-Far, lawyer, former deputy foreign minister
INVESTMENTS UNDERTAKEN
BY POLAND
IN 2015-2022
The development of offshore wind energy in the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone of the Baltic Sea is one of the strategic priorities of PEP2040.
There are 7 planned projects with a total capacity of 5.9 GW that have already received support under the Offshore Act and further auctions are planned in 2025 and 2027 to contract up to 5 GW of additional capacity, with those projects to be built in the mid 2030s.
The intensive development of offshore wind energy can also support the energy transition as a new economic sector generating tens of thousands of new jobs.
The “Mój Prąd” (My Current) program has allowed the rapid development of photovoltaics in Poland, far exceeding forecasts from a few years ago. The program subsidizes the construction of photovoltaic installations on the roofs of the “average Joe”. Practically every fifth single-family home in Poland already has a photovoltaic micro-installation.
The “Czyste Powietrze”(Clean Air) program allows for the thermal modernization of single-family homes, which in turn increases the energy efficiency of said type of housing in Poland. Among other things, the program co-finances the insulation of buildings.
In short, Polish energy companies are securing electricity supplies, stockpiling raw materials, investing in the modernization of the distribution network and the development of renewable energy sources.
ACTIONS UNDERTAKEN BY
The GOVERNMENT TO MITIGATE HIGH ENERGY
PRICES
The Polish government has introduced programs that are similar to many programs introduced by other European countries, and among the most important measures are:
A law has been initiated to change the current system of setting electricity prices on the balancing market, of which the main stipulations are:
