“Since the invasion the Kremlin has made close to a trillion dollars from oil and gas sales – much of it from European customers.”
The article literally states that much of that trillion comes from Europe. But that isn't the point at all is it? The real issues are these:
1. The US and europe put in place sanctions to isolate putin knowing that the sale of oil and gas is what was going to fund his war. Europe undermined those sanctions by giving putin the funding to prosecute the war.
2. Biden's leadership and effectiveness in maintaining that coalition apparently was non existent. Nor could he effectively manage getting europe to seize the 400 billion in russian assets.
3. Trump inherits the war and knows, despite support from the US and europe, it isn't enough to kick putin back into russia. Why? Because europe is giving putin the financial resources he needs to keep the war going and they have more manpower.
4. Trump knows its over and is trying to negotiate a REALISTIC agreement because russia has all the leverage due to europe's financial assistance. putin can wait everyone out.
5. It now is illogical to keep sending ukraine money because its just money down the drain.
6. Given that europe was literally paying the country they were fighting through proxy, it is also illogical to bail europe out of the disaster they helped create. Europe can't negotiate a peace without the US. So the US will once again bail europe out
7. Trump is right and all who want to keep funding the war are wrong.
Initially I was in disagreement with trump when he stated he wanted to discontinue support at the biden levels. But I realized, and am on record as saying that as long as the oil is flowing russia can continue to financially wage war. That is when I accepted trump was right to end it if he could get putin to agree to no nato for ukraine and to agree no more territory acquisition beyond what it already occupied. The mineral rights deal is a win for the US and ukraine and it provides some security for ukraine.
It is beyond dumb to continue to give ukraine any more money than is absolutely necessary to hold the existing lines until a peace agreement can be achieved. Europe has pulled the rug out from under ukraine and wasted billions of dollars. They aren't all of a sudden going to stop buying the oil so there is no point in continuing for the US. It's also beyond hypocritical for europe to criticize the US in any way. They should be begging trump to get a peace deal finalized as soon as he can.
The European oil/gas sales are a tiny fraction of $1 trillion. They were around $20 billion in 2024 and that was an increase from the prior year. Maybe $60 billion, total, since the beginning of the war (probably less). That's my whole point - the very article you cite makes perfectly clear that European spending Russian oil and gas is nowhere near $1 trillion (as do plenty of other sources of information) yet you continue to repeat the false information uncritically because you think it helps your point to do so.
I tend to share your frustration that the European countries can't just quit the Russian oil and gas cold turkey, and that revenue has surely been beneficial to Russia, but the idea that they're keeping Russia in the war is silly. (Including because that Russian oil and gas likely would have been bought by someone else, if not the European countries.) The major things that are going to make it hard for Russia to continue this war are manpower and heavy weaponry. The BBC just estimated that Russian military
deaths since February 2022 are between 146k and 211k. Not including wounded, prisoners, or MIA. That's something like 2.5x-3.5x total US deaths in Vietnam, but the Russian deaths have occurred over a much shorter time period. Russia's military is depleted and demoralized. They had to bring in North Korean troops to help replace personnel losses, and
those troops have been shredded. They've also had their heavy equipment (tanks, armored personnel carriers, etc) decimated - I've seen estimates over 50% - and in many cases are now relying on Soviet-era equipment. They can't easily replace that equipment, even with extra money from oil and gas sales.
Again, not once have you even attempted to grapple with the central issue with Trump's plan of appeasing Putin: appeasement of dictators with territorial ambitions
does not work as a long term strategy. By definition it does not lead to a lasting peace. Putin isn't going to just stop. He's isn't going to be satisfied with a sliver of Ukraine, any more than he was satisfied with controlling Crimea or the Donbas before. He does not think Ukraine should exist as a country. He likely does not think the Baltics should exist as countries. As leader of Russia he has repeatedly invaded sovereign nations around Russia. He will continue to do so if he is rewarded for doing it. The only way to get a lasting peace with Russia
is to defeat it and to reinforce the message we, along with NATO and the UN, have consistently delivered for the last 50+ years: we will not allow wars of territorial conquest anywhere in the world, and anyone who launches such a war will face the opposition of the united international community. If Russia and China perceive that we are no longer sending that message, they will feel emboldened to pursue (or continuing pursuing) the territorial wars they want to pursue.
The problem is we now have a President who doesn't understand, and has no interest in, the lessons of history. He waves away the importance of a stable world order where no one seeks to expand their own borders, through conquest or otherwise, because
he in fact has the naked ambition of expanding America's borders. He sympathizes with Putin's ambition of expanding a new, modern Russian empire because
he wants America to be imperialist too. You see it in his constant talking about expanding US territory to include Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, whatever.
The peace trump wants to pursue--Russian appeasement--not only will not help avert WWII,
it's going to help cause it. Trump's foreign policy is lessening the US's great power role as a deterrent to imperialist ambitions, and in fact Trump's own imperialist ambitions are going to accelerate the process. To ignore this is to ignore history.
