Putin warning fuels calls in EU to drop sanctions

EU politicians are stepping up calls to roll back Russia sanctions after President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow could halt gas supplies ahead of a planned 2027 ban. It has raised concerns over the bloc’s energy security amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini have repeatedly condemned the sanctions, saying they hurt the EU’s economy.

In Germany, Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the BSW party, has called for resuming imports of Russian oil to ease prices, while Alice Weidel, co-chair of the AfD, has urged an end to a one-sided reliance on the US and the Middle East for LNG.

Florian Philippot, the leader of France’s Patriots party shared a video of Putin’s remarks on X on Thursday. The French politician blasted the bloc’s Russia sanctions as “idiotic” and “ruinous” for Europeans and insisted they amount to collective self-harm.

European gas prices hit a three-year high this week after the US-Israeli campaign against Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes across the Middle East disrupted crude and LNG shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime choke point. This caused Qatar, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, to halt production.

The EU gets between 5% and 15% of its total gas supplies from Middle Eastern sources, primarily Qatar. The US is currently the bloc’s dominant LNG supplier with a 60% share.

Last month, the EU agreed to ban all gas imports from Russia, once the bloc’s largest supplier, by late 2027. The measure was designed to be approved by a “reinforced majority” of countries using trade and energy laws, rather than as a sanctions measure requiring unanimous approval. It came despite opposition from Hungary and Slovakia.

Putin said this week that Moscow may pull out of the EU gas market and redirect supplies to “reliable” partners without waiting for Brussels’ planned phase out of Russian imports to take effect. The energy crisis in the bloc is the result of its “misguided policies” over many years, he stated.