Sanctions were late twice Russian oil found its place Gas is not under sanctions Western countries fought so vigorously against “oil” dictators in Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Venezuela that they failed to notice the biggest one right under their noses. The USA, UK, and EU not only bought Russian oil and gas for decades but also built pipelines, displacing other importers in favor of the Kremlin, and helped the latter to acquire extraction and transportation technologies. On the second year of the major energy sanctions against Russia, there are countless gaps, not just loopholes. The imposed oil embargo and price restrictions on black gold are not fully effective, and natural gas remains completely unaffected by sanctions. The sanction standoff increasingly resembles a race in which the winner will be the one two steps ahead of the opponent. The outcome of this competition is evident: Russia maintains its main source of income, and the energy sanctions have no impact on the Kremlin’s desire to end the conflict. Sanctions were late twice Until 2014, the servicing of deep oil and gas wells in Russia was largely dependent on four American companies. As disclosed by a former employee of Halliburton’s Russian division, they sometimes had to complete complex wells with the help of local contractors because they couldn’t handle it alone. Thus, it was possible to put pressure on Russians as early as 2014 by forcing these companies to leave Russia. However, there was a lack of political will to do so. The imposed sanctions proved to be insufficiently strong to cause significant damage to Russia, but they were enough to make the Kremlin prepare for truly serious blows. After the annexation of Crimea, Russians immediately launched an import substitution program. In 2014, their capabilities could provide only 20% of the required equipment for well processing, and by 2019, it increased to 50%. American companies continued to process Russian wells and cultivate drilling specialists in Russia through modern training centers. Source: Economichna Pravda Western companies also helped Putin’s regime master liquefied natural gas (LNG) technologies, allowing Russia to transport gas by tankers worldwide and reduce its reliance on pipelines to the EU. The largest LNG projects in Russia, Sakhalin-II and Yamal LNG, were realized thanks to Western technological licenses. Shares in these projects were purchased by French, British, and Japanese companies. Until...