MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti) – Poland is going to pay a great price for agreeing to sanctions against Russia, an independent Polish expert told International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya Wednesday.
“The introduction of sanctions against Russia will certainly deal a heavy blow to the Polish economy, but Polish politicians haven’t realized it yet,” Andrzej Schensniak said.
Schensniak stressed that despite Poland’s political focus on Europe it remains very much dependent on Russia in terms of its energy imports and transit.
“The oil and gas sector is likely to bear the brunt [of EU sanctions] since it was created as an integral part of the [country’s] cooperation scheme with the Soviet Union and now with Russia,” the pundit said.
Schensniak said there had been calls on the Polish energy industry to wean itself from Russian crude oil, warning that the move would hit the nation’s oil refineries, as they would have to buy crude elsewhere at much higher prices. However, Polish natural gas imports from Russia have not been contested to this point.
“Even the most radical Polish politicians are not advocating abstinence from Russian gas, which is just commonsense. Poland’s gas system is also very dependent on Russia – two-thirds of Polish gas imports come from Russia,” Schensniak said.
Earlier today, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that a new wave of western economic sanctions against Russia’s energy sector will drive up European energy prices and hurt the 28 member states as much as Russia.
Russian and EU economies are “communicating vessels,” the ministry said, and Brussels’ decision to move to third-phase penalties against Moscow will affect both economies.
