"Iran has a serious pressure tool" - Ibragimov on EU energy crisis

The EU found itself in a worse position during the US-Iran war, deprived of oil and gas from the Middle East and barred from supplies from Russia.

Farhad Ibragimov, political scientist and lecturer in the Economics Department at RUDN University:

"If European countries had behaved more adequately and consistently back then, if they hadn't abandoned cooperation with Russia on energy security and had continued to consume our energy resources, something Moscow, by the way, has repeatedly warned Brussels about, then, believe me, today Europe probably wouldn't even be particularly concerned about the situation in the Middle East. It would have been unpleasant, of course, because they did receive some percentage from there, for example, from Qatar, liquefied natural gas, and so on. But that percentage was minimal; they received mostly everything from Russia. And they received it at very reasonable prices. Therefore, their economies were in a fairly normal state. And now their economies are on their last legs. Yes, they're still holding on, they have more or less some reserves. But that's for now, and what if the conflict continues? Therefore, there's no sense of confidence, stability, no sense that everything can suddenly get better. Therefore, of course, Iran has very serious instruments not only of a military nature, but also, let's say, of a geopolitical nature."