E.U. presents plan to cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds this year, stops short of boycott

President Biden on Tuesday announced that the United States is banning imports of Russian oil and natural gas and Britain is planning similar measures, putting the E.U. at odds with its allies.

Since the invasion, the United States, the E.U. and others have moved in tandem to cut Russia out of the global economy, shutting its government and some banks out of financial markets, restricting exports and freezing assets of oligarchs and lawmakers. But they have been slower to truly tackle energy, which is central to Russia’s economy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a full boycott of Russian goods, energy included. When Shell made headlines last week for buying Russian oil, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, asked the company if it smelled “like Ukrainian blood.” Polish officials have also said it is time to act.

White House to ban oil imports from Russia

But there has been strong European pushback to the idea of a ban because of the potential impact on European economies and consumers. Europe imports bout 40 percent of its gas and more than a quarter of its oil from Russia. The United States and Britain import far less.

Many E.U. nations have dismissed the idea of a boycott. “Supplying Europe with energy for heat generation, mobility, electricity supply and industry cannot be secured in any other way at the moment,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement Monday.

Still, given how much European energy Europe buys, the move could have a big impact. “Most Russian pipelines are heading to Europe,” said Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, the director for the energy center at the Jacques Delors Institute, a French think tank. “The cornerstone of Russia’s economy and of its regime is based on exports of oil and gas.”

The E.U. is pitching the plan as a step toward full independence from Russian fossil fuels “well before” 2030. To accelerate the shift away from Russia, the E.U would focus on finding new gas suppliers and also booting the production and import of biomethane and renewable hydrogen, as well as upgrading buildings to reduce energy consumption.

“It will be hard, bloody hard,” said the Commission’s Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans on Tuesday. “But it’s possible.”

Some within the E.U. have warned for years about relying on Russian fossil fuels. By mid-February, as Russia continued to amass troops at the Russian border, E.U. officials seemed to take the issue more seriously and sketched out new plans.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine accelerated these and other efforts. Germany quickly halted a controversial project, Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline meant to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany. Since then, there appears to be momentum for more aggressive E.U. moves.

“We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and gas,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement Tuesday. “We simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens us.”

On Monday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak appeared to threaten Europe once again, saying Western bans might lead Russia to close Nord Stream 1, a critical pipeline. “A rejection of Russian oil,” he said, “Would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market.”

— Quentin Ariès in Brussels and Karla Adam in London contributed