When Averof Neofytou proposed scrapping the EU’s energy sanctions on Russia, plenty of people in Cyprus reacted as if he had plucked a crackpot idea out of thin air.
It didn’t come out of nowhere, and he wasn’t the first to say it. The idea has been doing the rounds inside the EU for a long time, even among government officials. It is heard far more often from individual companies and organised industry, from producers’ and consumers’ associations, from economic analysts, whether independent or working for international news agencies, and from a sizeable slice of public opinion across the bloc.
What all of them can see is a Russia that has not been brought to its knees economically, not in the way, or to the degree, many expected when the “unprecedented sanctions” were first slapped on. Those sanctions have been ratcheted up several times since. We are now on the 21st or 22nd package.
The war grinds on. Russian fuel is sold to the four corners of the earth, and large quantities of it find their way back into the EU as refined products from third countries. Most member states have inflation across energy, food, industrial goods and services running well above the 2 per cent the European Central Bank considers acceptable. And interest rates are climbing again.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s direct, visible energy exports to EU markets have collapsed. By the end of 2025, imports of Russian natural gas were down by around 75 per cent and oil by 91 per cent. According to Eurostat, in the second quarter of 2026 Russian crude accounted for a mere 1 per cent of the European market, natural gas for 10 per cent and Russian LNG for about 17 per cent.
Naturally, much of that energy has been replaced with imports from elsewhere. Cheap pipeline gas has been swapped mostly for liquefied gas from the United States, which supplied 58 per cent of the LNG the EU imported in 2025. So much so that even Energy Commissioner Jorgensen conceded that we had kicked our dependence on Russian gas only to become dependent on American LNG. A far pricier fuel, needless to say.
And it isn’t only gas. When Trump said 15 to 20 days ago that he liked the idea of banning US diesel exports to Europe and elsewhere, our mighty Commission broke out in a cold sweat. A few days later, with Trump’s public threats hanging over it, the G7 and EU countries announced they would release oil reserves, in the faint hope of heading off yet more price rises at the pump.
Yes, this fresh wave of energy crisis in the EU owes more to the turmoil from the war against Iran and the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But strained EU-Russia relations and the ongoing sanctions are blocking cheaper Russian fuel from reaching the Union and keeping prices sky-high. They are stoking inflation and deindustrialisation.
Yes, Fico’s Slovakia and Orban’s Hungary have pushed back hardest against the policy of cutting the EU off from Russian energy altogether, and have taken the import ban to the EU’s Court of Justice.
Other leaders, though, have objected from time to time, among them Belgian Prime Minister De Wever and Austria’s then chancellor, who held the post until 2025. The FPO recently tabled a bill in the Austrian parliament to keep Russian imports flowing; it was voted down. Voices against shutting out Russian fuel have been heard inside Meloni’s government too, even if she doesn’t share them. Even among Germany’s Christian Democrats there is pressure to let Russian fuel back onto the market. None of them, of course, is asking for the other measures against Russia to be lifted while the war on Ukraine goes on.
Even Mitsotakis, asked by an American journalist in May 2022 whether he would back a full embargo on Russian gas and oil, replied: “As far as natural gas is concerned, it simply cannot happen. It would be like shooting ourselves in the foot.” And as recently as July, Greece vetoed the 21st sanctions package, demanding exemptions for Greek shipping companies carrying Russian LNG to third countries. Athens got what it asked for. Last June, Bulgarian Prime Minister Radev also sought exemptions from the Russia sanctions to protect his country’s energy infrastructure.
Averof did not call for every sanction to be lifted. Only the energy ones. Not to let Moscow off the hook, but so that European societies stop paying such a ruinous price for the war. Can we not even discuss it?
