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Comment by fxtentacle | Hacker News Reader

In Germany there's already discussions about lifting the sanctions because without cheap Russian gas, people might freeze. If that turns out to be the case, then whoever bought Rubles now at half their regular value is going to make a huge profit on buying gas/oil from that and selling it for Euros.

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This is not correct. The discussion is about imposing further sanctions (= stopping gas imports -- so far, Germany is still buying gas via NordStream1 and other pipeline(s))

EU used to produce its own energy, but environmentalists funded by Russia managed to reduce EU production and increase dependence on Russia. Hopefully those regulations can be reversed and EU can block Russia completely.

I'm pretty sure the environmentalists weren't arguing Europe should keep burning fossil fuels so long as they weren't extracted in Europe.

Nah, they pushed against scary nuclear instead, and some bad actors (Schroeder) capitalized on it.

There's no serious discussions of lifting sanctions in Germany at this point. The war has only barely just begun, Russia is genociding civilians. It would be an extraordinarily ugly public relations outcome for Germany to take that step right now. While NATO and Germany are busy trying to kill Russians with their weapons, pledging more by the day, they're going to stop sanctions? Nope.

Sanctions on Russia will get worse yet. The war will likely get worse yet as well.

While NATO had placed sanctions on Iran, we had to pay for our oil imports through German banks, so a bit unsure if the German would ever leave money on the table.

We (Italy) are already paying more than 2€ per liter on fuel (it was around 1.5€ befor3 Ukraine happened) and the gas bills have become unbearable for most people. The government is vaguely talking about some "relief" coming for the past 2 months, but nothing has come yet.

Honestly, I'm all in to lift the sanctions. Liberals, you wanted globalization? I'm not going to pay the price for that.

> Liberals, you wanted globalization? I'm not going to pay the price for that.

You are literally arguing for globalization. You want free trade with Russia so you can buy cheap fuel.

Hm no, globalisation made everyone rely on everyone else, as soon as one actor disappear the whole system crumbles. You paid cheaper for a while but the final cost is being completely incapable of handling crisis (remember covid ?)

Look at France and its nationalised nuclear energy production, they won't be nearly as impacted as Poland or Germany.

If you say "I'm not going to pay the price for that" it implies you think the price is too high. But if you want lower prices you want globalization. The system hasn't "crumbled". The prices have gone up. Where are the Italian gas fields that went unexploited because of globalization?

They could have build new nuclear power plants instead of voting for decommissioning them and sucking every last drops of cheap oil. Future generations will be the judge, in the meantime get ready for a few cold winters.

I'm sure the only "relief" they had planned is spring weather.

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