This has been a bad week for Europe’s energy consumers, but a satisfying one for Vladimir Putin. European benchmark gas prices on Friday were six times higher than a year ago — but did fall back from an all-time high midweek after Russia’s president suggested Moscow might be prepared to stabilise prices. Politicians once consoled themselves that Russia could never afford to cut off gas to Europe since that would crash its economy. Recent weeks have shown Moscow has no need to turn off the taps: in a supply crunch, it can exert outsize influence even while continuing to fulfil all its long-term contracts, simply by withholding any extra gas.
這一周對歐洲的能源消費(fèi)者來說是糟糕的一周，但對弗拉基米爾?普京(Vladimir Putin)來說卻是令人滿意的一周。周五，歐洲基準(zhǔn)天然氣價(jià)格較一年前上漲5倍，但在俄羅斯總統(tǒng)暗示莫斯科可能準(zhǔn)備穩(wěn)定價(jià)格后，價(jià)格確實(shí)從周中的歷史高點(diǎn)回落了。政客們曾安慰自己說，俄羅斯永遠(yuǎn)也承受不起切斷對歐洲的天然氣供應(yīng)，因?yàn)檫@將導(dǎo)致其經(jīng)濟(jì)崩潰。最近幾周的現(xiàn)實(shí)表明莫斯科無需關(guān)閉天然氣供應(yīng)閥門，在供應(yīng)緊張的情況下，哪怕是繼續(xù)履行所有長期合同，它都可以發(fā)揮巨大的影響力——只要不提供任何額外天然氣供應(yīng)就行。