Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Does Europe Have Enough Gas for the Winter?" video.

I never had any doubts about the EU countries being alright over winter, yes they would have to tighten their belts but the lights will stay on, after all, they import over 50% of its energy from other countries than Russia, with a few smart decision, tightening their belts and the gas storage, they should be fine in winter and after this winter, that gives them a lot of time to adapt. For Russia, it's becoming a disaster because they are shutting themselves out of one of the richest markets in the world that is on its doorstep, that's got a lot of economic damage to Russia and when you throw in that Russia is not a reliable partner for any country, in that no country will want to buy too much from Russia in case they get political again, they've lost a lot of trust here as I highly doubt the likes of China and India will want to buy too much from Russia in case they play games with them. As for the UK, I do feel we've got it worse, we've got a government that keep blundering from one mess to another, we don't really store that much gas in the UK and the energy prices are sky-high, I got a sense that the UK government is sleepwalking into disaster in this winter and it wouldn't surprise me if we get massive protest over the winter and if the new leader could be out of power by the end of winter.
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That's the thing, the EU can adapt to all this, Russia will find it much harder to find other rich customers and the EU and US is very likely going to actually put a lot of pressure on countries that do buy cheap oil and gas from Russia. Also, it's unlikely that China, India and others will want to buy too much from Russia as they won't want to be too dependent on Russia in case they get political with its energy reserves. I think that's where the real damage is, it's with trust, Russia using energy as a political weapon has broken all trust in them and that's going to take years if not decades to repair, no country, not even a friendly country can be stupid enough to get too dependent on Russia, knowing they could turn the screws on them at any moment. I think that is where the real damage is for Russia and it's long term.
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Russia couldn't afford to do that, we should remember what Putin is doing now is out of desperation because he's not getting is way, he didn't want to do it because it's very costly to Russia but he's realizing that Europe isn't bending to his will over the pressure of high prices and reduce gas flow, he hoped the EU would back off but it's not happening, hence why after the G7 summit, Putin threw in the towel. Also, if he did do as you suggest, that could've started a major war as it would have done a lot of damage globally, everything Putin did was all about building pressure on the Europeans to back down and accept the war in Ukraine, that didn't happen so he's getting desperate and in any case, it's too late for Putin and even for Russia if the Russian people don't depose Putin because as long as he is in power of Russia, he's going to drag Russia down with him, lets see how long it takes for the Russian people to realize that.
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The reason so many say EU as Europe is because there is so many countries in Europe that most prefer to just use the term EU for Europe because it's easier to understand and remember, that's likely not going to change and in fact, it's likely going to be more the case as the EU expands in the future. We should also remember that a lot of countries are very closely tied to the EU, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and so on follow a lot of the same rules that the EU create, it's easy from the outside why most use the term EU for Europe and like I said above, it's going to be more that case going forward because the EU is the major power block in Europe. This isn't about whether you like it or not, it is what it is.
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