Opposition Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Tuesday accused the EU of making a huge blunder of oil sanctions against Moscow that are now financially undermining the 27-nation bloc instead of exhausting the heart of the Crem war.
The former richest man in Russia said the EU should have secured alternative supplies before embarking on an embargo, or should have considered a whole other approach, such as imposing tariffs on Russian energy instead of imposing a total ban. Opening a hole in his own finances, Khodorkovsky argued that Europe was now less able to allocate cash to the crucial task of buying more weapons for Ukraine.
After a month of negotiations, EU member states agreed to ban offshore oil shipments from Russia by the end of this year – equivalent to more than 90 per cent of imports – in late May.
“Right now, energy sanctions are hurting Europe, not Russia,” he told POLITICO during his first trip to the EU since the start of the war in Ukraine. “My view was and remains the same – what good are you doing?”
Khodorkovsky, the former head of the oil giant Yukos, spent 10 years in prison for what was widely regarded as false accusations after becoming a outspoken critic of the Kremlin. After his release in 2013, Khodorkovsky campaigned for the promotion of democracy and human rights in Russia through the organization Open Russia.
“The problem is that today’s Western politicians have never had talks with gangsters,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “You can only start negotiations with him when he feels he is in a weaker position.”
Khodorkovsky, in Brussels for two days of meetings with EU officials and others organized by the Bratislava-based think tank GLOBSEC, argues that the bloc could better spend its money on weapons for Ukraine.
“How much has the West lost in revenue with the introduction of all kinds of energy sanctions? $ 100 billion, $ 200 billion? ” he said. “If Ukraine had weapons worth at least $ 50 billion instead of $ 10 billion, the situation would be completely different now – without imposing energy sanctions.”
The EU cut its growth forecast for this year by about 1 per cent in April amid the war in Ukraine – equivalent to about 160 billion euros – based on recent GDP estimates from the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, the bloc is giving 2 billion euros in weapons to Ukraine.
According to Khodorkovsky, several experts argued that imposing tariffs would be wise, as diverting oil to other countries with the current infrastructure would be difficult for Moscow. This means that Russian energy companies would probably have absorbed the highest export costs to Europe, reducing their profit margins and ultimately cutting Moscow’s military budget.
Finally, the former billionaire said that Europe should have made more concerted efforts to find alternative supplies for its oil and gas long before imposing sanctions. Instead, EU countries had to replace Russian energy supply by hastily negotiating ad hoc contracts.
“I was surprised to find out that there was no agreement on alternative supplies and then [now] do you impose sanctions? ” said Khodorkovsky.
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