Amid escalating inflation and concerns about economic recession covering across Europe, many large businesses in the old continent are quietly pressuring their governments to reconsider their tough stance on Russia, especially in the energy sector.
The report shows that more and more business leaders and some local politicians in Europe are calling on governments to "reviewing their confrontation with Moscow", especially as the prospect of a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire is being mentioned, while industries are struggling with high energy costs.
The whole continent is rising to a monotonous chord from business and politics, demanding that the government reconsider its tough stance on Moscow, Politico wrote.
Although many EU officials are still trying to build policies to completely cut off their dependence on Russian energy, Politico said: "That resilience will be unlikely to last if the conflict ends, public opinion changes and industries face difficulties to turn to demand cheap gas from Russia".
A gas trader confirmed that there are European companies ready to buy back Russian gas if political conditions allow.
Stefan Meister, an expert from the German Foreign Relations Council, said that the pressure will increase as not only businesses but also local politicians have begun to demand a return to using cheap energy from Russia.
In this context, the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported from the US is much more expensive than pipeline supplies from Russia, directly affecting the profits and competitiveness of many key industries such as chemicals, metals, cement, glass, etc.
It is noteworthy that even within the US administration, there is controversy over energy policy with Russia.
US presidential energy specialises chief Steve Witkoff is said to have proposed lifting energy sanctions against Russia. Mr. Witkoff said that this will help stabilize the market and cool global energy prices.
However, this proposal was not supported by all. US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum wants to take advantage of the situation to push Russia out of the market and expand US gas exports to Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently said that Moscow and Washington are discussing the Nord Stream gas pipeline, while hinted that it would be exciting if the US took advantage of its influence to make Europe return to use Russian gas.
If the Americans really want to, they can convince Europe not to completely abandon supplies from Russia, Mr. Lavrov said.
