Why cold Siberian air would help Vladimir Putin this winter
- Across Europe, governments are scrambling to prevent energy rationing and blackouts this winter
- Whether they succeed will depend in part on something they have no control over: the weather
Analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin is hoping for a cold winter or a prolonged period of freezing temperatures after cutting Russia gas exports to Europe in retaliation for EU support for Ukraine.
Another cold season like 2010/2011 or a prolonged Arctic blast like the “Beast from the East” which blew into western Europe from Siberia in 2018 could cause hardships that might weaken EU resolve in supporting Ukraine.
“The energy weapon has one bullet in the chamber and he has just fired it,” said Eliot A. Cohen, a war historian and security expert at the the Centre for Strategic and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
“Europeans will go through the worst of it this winter,” he said.
In many countries, households are being urged to turn down their thermostats and companies are being asked to find energy savings under EU plans to reduce gas consumption this winter by 15 per cent compared to average.
In recent months, European states have raced to fill up their strategic reserves, buying extra supplies at record prices from Algeria, Qatar, Norway and the United States among other global gas suppliers.