By Manal Abdel Fattah
The Russian Embassy in Cairo commented on the European sanctions against Russia, saying: “The European Union continues to blindly follow Washington’s lead and is preparing to adopt the imposition of the 14th package of illegal sanctions on Russia.
At the same time, more and more reasonable economists, experts and politicians have begun to… The West is repeating what Russia has been saying since 2014, which is that these restrictions conflict with the interests of Europe and the main beneficiary of them is the United States.
As the International Monetary Fund expects, in 2024 the European Union’s GDP will grow by no more than 1.1%, and in 2023 growth was 0.6%»
The Russian Embassy in Cairo added that the main reason for the problems of the European economy is the inflation of energy prices due to the rise in prices for American liquefied natural gas.
At the same time, the Americans not only obtained a record amount of 53 billion euros from their sales to Europe, but they also stimulated the transportation of European products To the United States.
The embassy continued: “Now, Europeans, who are rapidly losing competitiveness in the global market, spend an average of 15.2 billion euros per month on purchasing fuel, although in 2021, when their main supplier was Russia, monthly expenditures amounted to only 6 billion euros.”
The accumulated damage to the European Union due to refusal from Russian gas has already exceeded $700 billion, and could reach $1 trillion by the end of 2024.”
The Russian embassy continued: “The industrial sector, especially energy-intensive sectors, finds itself in a difficult situation, and according to Eurostat, the volume of production in January 2024 decreased by 2.1% compared to the previous month, and by 5.7% compared to the level of January 2023.
The chemical industry was the most affected. From the energy crisis, as it reduced its production by 23% over the past two years, the automobile industry that was once successful in Germany is heading towards decline, with the number of cars produced in 2023 decreasing by 12% from 2019 and by 27% from 2017.
The embassy confirmed that what is happening may lead to a decline in industrialization in Europe, high unemployment rates, and social instability, pointing out that ordinary Europeans are already witnessing an increase in the costs of purchasing electricity in apartments due to the lack of cheap gas from Russia, as well as a rise in food prices due to the sanctions imposed. On Russian fertilizer producers.
