Europe’s Green Energy Policies Bought Russia’s War Machine

Even if you think Russia has some legitimate grievances, this war thing is not good. M’kay? It’s a horrible waste of life and property, and it will hardly just be the civilians of Ukraine and Russia paying a steep economic price. But it would never have happened if Russia couldn’t afford the world’s third-largest military — with only the 11th-largest GDP. Where is it getting the hard currency to oil that war machine (pun intended)? It’s essentially fossil fuel exports to our NATO allies, and especially the largest of them, Germany. And yes, even some exports to the United States.

Russia is a nation cursed with awful weather, but blessed with great poets and, more to our point, the world’s greatest fossil fuel reserves. Granted, that doesn’t directly translate into GDP size. Russia’s amounted to only $1.48 trillion in 2020. That puts it well behind Germany ($3.85 trillion), the U.K., France, and other European countries. Per capita Russian GDP ranks 68th, well below Chile.

So while Germany has been spending only 1.4 percent of GDP on it military, Russia spends 4.3 percent. That’s part of how it can have so many weapons. The other part is its export revenues.