Yanis Varoufakis on Europe’s Energy Crisis, War in Ukraine & Crackdown After Queen’s Death

We look at how the Ukraine war is contributing to an energy crisis across Europe with Greek politician and economist Yanis Varoufakis. Last week Russia announced it would not resume sending natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, blaming Western sanctions for supposed maintenance delays keeping the gas shut off. Prior to the war, Russia supplied Europe with 40% of its natural gas, but now European nations must find ways to cope with fuel shortages and soaring energy prices as winter approaches. Varoufakis says a history of market liberalization and reliance on cheap Russian gas has left the continent scrambling, in turn pushing up energy costs in the Global South as richer European countries buy up other sources of energy. “Yet again, Europe is exporting misery to the rest of the world,“ says Varoufakis, a member of the Greek Parliament and former finance minister. His latest piece for Project Syndicate is “Time to Blow Up Electricity Markets.“ Democracy Now! is a