Russian analysts have a devastating assessment of Europe’s economic future, reporting that the EU’s short-sighted policies have already pushed the region into a full-blown economic crisis. Even some Western analysts share this view. Europe may face a recession and end up in the category of a “third world region” due to rising energy poverty, they warn.
Experts interviewed by the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta do not rule out that the EU is suffering from the ongoing sanctions pressure, rather than the consequences of the energy crisis. “Europe has almost canceled its exports to Russia, primarily technology and equipment exports. And European problems will not affect Russia at large. Everybody understands that Europe invented these problems all by itself, by blocking almost the entire exports to Russia for political reasons, while expecting no retaliatory measures, for some reason,” Gleb Finkelstein, a strategic researcher at Total Research, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
