>If you think about it, Europe sends its produce and Russia sends its energy and everyone lives happily together
That energy was for Europe for more important than these produce for Russia. Our leaders are to blame for going on with this imbalance of leverage for so long and not taking measures or backups despite the US warning us on several occasions that Europe is vulnerable to Russian exploitation due to this imbalance. Unfortunately for us, out leaders are Muppets asleep at the wheel.
That's only because Russia is not a proper democracy. Europe is poor on energy, leaders couldn't have chosen to export energy to Russia and buy their produce because the reality doesn't allow that. Instead, they did the next best thing and invest in energy efficiency. EU is quite efficient on energy use, making dependence on Russia lower than what it could have been.
Many times the climate change is half of the story, the other half is that EU couldn't be lavish on energy use even if it wanted.
>That's only because Russia is not a proper democracy.
You're saying it as if that came as a complete surprise to the EU leaders and EU population, that Putin's Russia was not a "real" democracy. When the US and the Eastern Europe was warning for decades that Russia cannot be trusted. Yet Germany turned a blind eye.
> You're saying it as if that came as a complete surprise to the EU leaders and EU population, that Putin's Russia was not a "real" democracy. When the US and the Eastern Europe was warning for decades that Russia cannot be trusted. Yet Germany turned a blind eye.
No I don't say that at all, read my comment again. I clearly say that they made a mistake with that.
> Our leaders are to blame for going on with this imbalance of leverage for so long and not taking measures or backups despite the US warning us
Power of european leaders comes from european citizens, not from US (at least on paper).
Blame the european citizens, that they wanted to have good relations with Russia... no this does not work either.
Many people did not believe Putin would invade, or did not want to preempt him.
Now that we have the proof of treachery, working with/appeasing Russia became dangerous and only now we have a incontrovertible reason to disconnect from it. But before the invasion, it was not so clear that being on good terms with Russia was bad.
That energy was for Europe for more important than these produce for Russia. Our leaders are to blame for going on with this imbalance of leverage for so long and not taking measures or backups despite the US warning us on several occasions that Europe is vulnerable to Russian exploitation due to this imbalance. Unfortunately for us, out leaders are Muppets asleep at the wheel.