OREANDA-NEWS  The severance of energy ties with Russia has become a disaster for Europe, Florian Philippot, leader of the French Patriots party, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"I think the biggest impact on Europe was the breakdown of energy relations. This had disastrous consequences. This especially affected Germany, but also France a little. We are now buying liquefied natural gas from the United States, which is much more expensive than Russian. And this cannot but worry," Filippo said, speaking about the consequences of the rupture of relations between Russia and Europe after the special operation in Ukraine.
According to him, the trade deficit in France has become a record: it has doubled in a year.

"In addition, there is a strong environmental impact, because we received Russian gas through the pipeline, and we receive American LNG in tankers, which is very bad for the environment and the environment," the politician said.


As for the economic consequences, Filippo recalled that European countries had already gone through this when the EU first imposed sanctions against Russia in 2014: then Russia became stronger, and Europeans, on the contrary, weakened these restrictions.

"Therefore, we already knew that new sanctions would turn against us again. So we lost both from an energy and economic point of view. Due to the increased energy prices, many European companies began to move to the United States. In France, many bakeries and small businesses have begun to close, as they cannot pay such money for electricity. So the situation is truly catastrophic," the agency interlocutor summed up.

The West has increased sanctions pressure on Russia in connection with the Russian military operation in Ukraine, many European companies have left the Russian market. The European Union has already put into effect ten packages of sanctions against Russia since February last year. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that the policy of containing and weakening Russia is a long—term strategy of the West, and sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy. According to him, the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people.

The Russian Federation has repeatedly stated that the country will cope with the sanctions pressure that the West began to exert on Russia several years ago and continues to strengthen. Moscow noted that the West lacks the courage to admit the failure of sanctions against the Russian Federation. In the Western countries themselves, opinions have repeatedly been voiced that anti-Russian sanctions are ineffective and hit the West harder, not the Russian Federation.