Russian attacks against Ukraine would stop “within a month or two” if Western allies stop buying its oil and gas, according to a former economic adviser to President Putin.
The Dr. Andrei Illarionov said Russia “did not take seriously” NATO allies’ threat to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
These statements are produced after it became known that the European Union spent 35,000 million euros in Russian hydrocarbons since the beginning of the invasion and sent only 1,10 millions of euros in aid to Ukraine, although the German government announced that it will stop importing oil and coal from Russia this year and gas by the middle of 2024.
The rise in fuel prices means that oil and gas revenues account for about a third of public spending in Russia and the European Union imports about 40% of your gas and the 27% of its oil from Russia and its main diplomat, Josep Borrell says that they pay Russia one billion euros for a day of energy.
Dr. Illarionov told the BBC’s Talking Business with Aaron Heslehurst, that if the Allies could “implement a real embargo on Russian oil and gas exports… I bet probably within a month or two, Russian military operations in Ukraine will probably cease.”
“It is one of the very effective instruments still in the possession of Western countries”, he said.
Dr. Illarionov, who served as Vladimir Putin’s chief economic adviser from 2000 to 2000, said an energy embargo would be “very effective”, but warned that the Russian leader was prepared to see the economy suffer as a price for his “imperial ambitions”.
He was speaking just as President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned on Twitter that he had talked with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about additional sanctions, as well as more defense and financial support for his country.
In a video address on Saturday night, he renewed his call for a complete ban on Russian energy and more weapons for Ukraine.
The EU banned imports of Russian coal among other products on Friday, but has yet to touch oil and gas imports.