Russia has no plans to ‘close the door’ to Europe

When asked whether Russia could reverse Peter the Great’s open-door policy because of strained relations with Europe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow “has no plans to close any sectors.” any” with this area.

Peter the Great was the tsar who ruled the Russian Empire from 1682 to 1725. He promoted Russia to a great power in Europe and founded the city of Saint Petersburg – which was dubbed “the window to Europe” Europe” of Russia.

Since Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in February, European countries have introduced a series of sanctions against Moscow. On May 30, leaders of the European Union (EU) agreed to cut 90% of oil imports from Russia by 2023. Along with that, the bloc also removed Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, from the payment system. SWIFT and imposed a ban on three Moscow state television stations.

Russia is the largest exporter of oil and petroleum products to the EU. The country supplies 2.2 million barrels of oil per day and 1.2 million barrels of oil products, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell estimates that oil exports bring in Russia $1 billion a day.

Because the EU is heavily dependent on Russian energy, some member countries will be greatly affected if they remove this energy source. Last year, Slovakia imported 96% of its oil from Russia (105,000 bpd). The share of Russian oil imports in Hungary is 58% (70,000 bpd) and the Czech Republic imports half of its oil from Russia (68,000 bpd). Other EU countries are less dependent on Russian oil, but rising oil prices are one of the main causes of inflation in Europe.

In March, Russia increased oil supplies to India and China. Of that, about 310,000 bpd went to India (compared to almost no exports to India in February) and another 70,000 bpd to 790,000 bpd to China. In March, Russian oil supplies to Europe fell by 420,000 bpd to 1.4 million bpd.