Since the Ukraine ware began, the EU has attempted to punish Vladimir Putin with one hand while rewarding him with the other.

It isn’t a pleasant reality, but it is reality: Europe is still buying cheap Russian energy products.

Just as they have done throughout the entire Russian-Ukraine conflict.

Vladimir Putin and Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. EU nations — while talking a good game about supporting Ukraine — bought Russian energy on February 25, 2022.

And February 26, 2022. And February 27, 2022. And every day thereafter.

It’s been almost four years. The many sanctions the EU has attempted to impose on Russia have done little good, of course. How could such a strategy be effective when the leaders of EU nations have continued to line Putin’s pockets?

Which, presumably, he has used to fund the ongoing war in Ukraine.

It’s hard to blame EU nations — the citizens, anyway. But that citizenry should probably elect new leadership as the current crop of leaders include many who allowed the EU to become completely dependent on Russian energy over the past 10 years. 

This despite the fact that Russia has been at war with Ukraine since 2014. This despite the warnings of more pragmatic leaders.

Decoupling from Russian energy in 2022 would have meant devastatingly high energy costs…and devastatingly difficult reelection campaigns for the democratically elected leaders of the European Union.

Putin, of course, knew what he was doing all along. Getting European countries addicted to cheap Russian energy was part of his Ukraine strategy from the beginning.

Perhaps European leaders were just naive to trust Putin with their vital energy needs. Perhaps, as they claim, there was just no way the EU could have anticipated that Russia would launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But that was nearly four years ago.

Why are European countries continuing to buy Russian oil and gas while the war in Ukraine drags on and on and thousands are killed?

One such pragmatic voice begging European nations not to become completely dependent on Russian energy was, of course, Donald Trump.

Never afraid to be contrarian, Trump was shouting it to the rooftops.

“President Trump told the Europeans, ‘Do not build Nord Stream 2, do not rely on Russian oil,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reminded NBC host Kristen Welker during an interview last week on Meet the Press. “And guess what is funding Russia’s efforts against Ukraine? European purchases of Russian oil. So America has to be in control here.”

Asked by Welker if President Trump is serious about acquiring Greenland, Bessent responded thusly:

“President Trump strongly believes that we cannot outsource our security, said Sec. Bessent. “Because Kristen, let me tell you what will happen. And it might not be next year, might not be in five years. But down the road, this fight for the Arctic is real. We would keep our NATO guarantees. And if there were an attack on Greenland from Russia, from some other area, we would get dragged in. So better now, peace through strength, make it part of the United States, and there will not be a conflict because the United States right now, we are the hottest country in the world. We are the strongest country in the world. Europeans project weakness. U.S. projects strength.”

“Senior Democrats say there are no pressing threats on Greenland’s security from Russia or China,” Welker presented the opinions of Trump’s political opponents as irrefutable fact. “The Danish foreign minister says there hasn’t been a Chinese warship in Greenland for a decade. What evidence do you have that the is a pressing threat?”

“Well, first of all, Kristen, we have asymmetric information,” Bessent pointed out. “And again, President Trump is being strategic here. What evidence was there that the Russians were going into Crimea? Well, actually there was a lot of evidence that the Russians were going to go into Ukraine. And Joe Biden said, ‘Well, just take a little bit of it.’ But what we know is that Greenland can only be defended if it is part of the U.S., and it will not need to be defended if it is part of the U.S. The president is trying to avoid a conflict.”

“And again, we have seen that Europeans are unable to push back against Russia,” Bessent reminded Welker. “This was a war that never would have started in Ukraine, Kristen, and we are going to settle it. But it wouldn’t have started. And what President Trump is trying to do is prevent a taking or the Russian, Chinese action in Greenland in the future.”

“The European leaders will come around,” Bessent predicted. “And they will understand that they need to be under the U.S. security umbrella. What would happen in Ukraine if the U.S. pulled its support out? The whole thing would collapse. Kristen, to be clear, since 1980 the U.S. military spending versus NATO military spending, we have spent $22 trillion more than the Europeans have, that we are peace through strength And the Europeans now are only trying to play catch-up. And that is only through President Trump. President Trump believes in NATO. But he does not believe in the American people being dragged in.”

“Of course, we are going to remain a part of NATO,” Bessent continued. “But what President Trump does not want is for a war to start and the U.S. gets dragged in. Again, we are not going to outsource our Western Hemisphere security to others.”

Maybe it’s about time the world listened and started treating Vladimir Putin’s Russia as the threat it clearly is. How much longer would European leaders like the Ukraine war to continue while they help pay for it and Ukrainians die?

Maybe they should start treating Vladimir Putin the way they’ve treated Donald Trump?

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)