Because it is convenient to have a dialogue with Putin

If in the end the bills will not be so heavy it may be due to the autocrat of all Russia, Vladimir Putin, who announced an increase in gas supplies to Europe and, consequently, caused an immediate drop in prices. The Kremlin is playing its cards, but it is also true that today it is becoming clear how short-sighted it was to introduce barriers between the EU and Russia.

The Moscow tsar was once at home in Europe and Silvio Berlusconi, in particular, worked hard to build relations between the Western world and the former KGB officer. No one has ever been so naïve as not to see the illiberal character of the Russian regime, but equally it was deemed appropriate to develop economic relations, in the conviction that this was useful both to the Russians and to the Europeans.

Since 2014, however, the European Union has taken another path. As a result of the Ukrainian crisis, barriers were introduced which hindered our entrepreneurs interested in doing business in Russia and limited the import of products from that country. However, it cannot be said that this has served to improve the political framework, because the Putinian political system has closed in on itself even more and has strengthened its isolation.

Nothing surprising. For decades, the United States used the embargo against Cuba without producing any results, while the barriers penalized everyone. Disastrous on the economic level, the tariffs are also ineffective on the political level, since they prevent the intersection of experiences, sensitivities and cultures that naturally develops when borders are permeable.

Putin does not intend to be the benefactor of Europe and if he makes certain choices it is because he is guided by very precise calculations. For their part, however, Europeans should rediscover the importance of trade: they are essential to lower prices and remove the illusion that renewable sources are sufficient to meet our needs, but above all they lay the foundations for increasing integration and for the initiation of dialogues, relationships, contaminations, hybridizations.

The great liberal authors have always known that, to quote a formula attributed to Frédéric Bastiat, if a frontier is not crossed by goods, sooner or later it will be crossed by armies. What we did not understand in the past by reflecting on freedom and rights, today we should understand by thinking a little about the upcoming energy bills.

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