DrCaleb DrCaleb:
[popcorn]
Germany and Italy won't be able to buy oil and gas. But then again, Germany and Italy won't be able to buy oil and gas.
The anti-nuclear power campaign that caused German utility costs to spike and made them hostage to Russian gas has to be one of the largest domestic policy blunders any major country has made in the last several decades. The Germans had to have known that the solar & wind were in no way capable of replacing nuclear yet they did it anyway in order to placate the unthinking environmental movement. And German CO2 emissions are way up anyway, as they've gone back to using more coal fuel to replace what they took away by shutting down nuclear.
Heads should really roll in Germany, especially if it's found out later that this encouraged Putin's actions in Ukraine if he's been assuming all along there would be no European backlash given German dependency on Russian fuels, that the Germans would block any harsh actions against Russia in order to protect their provider.