That is what Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, told the Financial Times in an article published Nov. 30. Pyatt said that Western sanctions on Moscow will need to be maintained “for years to come,” in order to ensure that Russia can never again mount an attack on its neighbors. “This is something that we’re going to have to stick to for years to come, as long as Putin persists in this war,” said Pyatt.
Pyatt was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine over 2012-2016, whose infamous 2014 phone conversation with Victoria Nuland over whom the State Department would make Prime Minister in its overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych was recorded and went viral. At the time, Nuland insisted on installing Arseniy Yatsenyuk and “Fuck the EU,” she said, if they disagreed. Pyatt became ambassador to Greece in 2016 after he left Ukraine.
Pyatt’s FT interview was covered by TASS and other Russian and international media, many of which underlined the statements that unveiled Washington’s purpose in Ukraine from the beginning.
Pyatt lives in another universe, as Russia has demonstrated that it has been able to export oil and gas despite the illegal sanctions. Reports indicate that while pipeline gas to Europe no longer flows, European imports of Russian LNG have increased in the last year. According to a report by Global Witness, an environmental watchdog organization, the European Union bought 21.6 million cubic meters (mcm) of Russian LNG between January and July of this year—a small increase over the 21.3 mcm imported in the same period in 2022. But when the 2023 figure is measured against January-July 2021, prior to the Ukraine war, it shows a 39.5% surge, which is an embarrassing percentage for a bloc that has forcefully condemned Moscow’s special military operation as an illegal, brutal and ruthless attempt to subjugate Ukraine’s independence.
