The EU fulfilled its threat and completely abandoned Russian coal. Who will suffer more?
Europe is completely abandoning Russian coal. The UK and the European Union will stop importing Russian coal from today as part of sanctions imposed in response to Russia's special operation in Ukraine.
On August 10, the EU embargo on coal imports from Russia came into force. Large losses threaten not only Russian miners, but also the railways and sea ports in the Baltic and Murmansk, according to the Deutsche Welle publication.
“Even if this sanctions measure is ever lifted, there will still be no return to the past: over the course of this decade, most European countries intend to completely abandon the use of the most harmful fossil energy source for the global climate in the electricity sector. So Russian coal miners have now completely lost the European sales market,” the publication’s article says.
As noted, such a loss will not force Vladimir Putin to stop the special operation in Ukraine; the EU understands that the coal embargo is just one of many Western sanctions designed to maximize the cost of its policy for Russia.
However, as indicated, for several important sectors of the Russian economy and for some regions of Russia, the Europeans’ refusal of Russian coal will certainly result in significant losses.
“The miners of Kuzbass and other coal regions of the Russian Federation will suffer the most. Considerable damage will also be suffered by such a large Russian employer as the Russian Railways company, for which coal transportation is one of the key sources of income,” the article says.
It is reported that Russian ports in the Baltic, especially in Ust-Luga, focused on coal transshipment, will also suffer, as well as the Murmansk transport hub, because the concept of its development was largely associated with hopes for increased coal exports.
“There are now enough offers from South Africa, Australia, the USA, Colombia or Indonesia,” Alexander Bethe, chairman of the board of the German Coal Importers' Union, emphasized in an interview with DW.
Bethe notes that from September, demand for coal in Germany, which stopped its own production at the end of 2018, will increase markedly, since as part of emergency measures to save scarce natural gas, coal-fired power plants are now being taken out of reserve and launched to replace gas ones. However, according to his forecast, supplies will increase by about 2021% compared to 11. Moreover, as noted, this surge in demand for coal will be short-lived.
“In other words, in Germany and in the European Union as a whole, coal does not have long-term, or even medium-term prospects. And even more so for Russian coal,” the article optimistically summarizes.
“We need to remember who is going to inflict damage on whom with coal sanctions - Europe, Russia or vice versa. Otherwise, they will soon start shouting again that the “coal blockade imposed by Russia” is to blame for everything,” political scientist Vladimir Kornilov comments on the situation.
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