Russia uses old campaign to mock Europe for ‘self-castrating’ over energy

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Russia uses old campaign to mock Europe for ‘self-castrating’ over energy  Is Europe “self-castrating” by refusing to go back to Russian energy, despite the war between the US and Iran? Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson uses a 2021 Dutch energy campaign to mock the EU’s energy deficiency.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/03/25/russia-uses-old-campaign-to-mock-europe-for-self-castrating-over-energy  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00Is the EU self-castrating by rejecting Russia's energy resources?

00:08Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, is overstating claims that Europe

00:13is facing a severe energy crisis as a result of the Iran war. In a Telegram post, she mocked the

00:18EU for engaging in self-castration by upholding sanctions on Russian energy following Moscow's

00:24invasion of Ukraine. Zakharova said Europe will approach the 20th sanctions package in good shape

00:29and quoted a Dutch energy-saving campaign that, amongst other things, suggested that people

00:34reduce the duration of their showers. She was basing her claims on a widely spread campaign by Dutch

00:39provider Energy Bank to combat energy poverty. The initiative is real, consisting of 10 energy-saving

00:45tips. These include things like closing doors to keep the room warm, hanging laundry out instead of

00:50using a dryer, and, as mentioned by Zakharova, limiting showers to just five minutes. But the

00:56campaign was developed in 2021 and has nothing to do with Europe's response to the crisis in the

01:00Middle East. Instead, it is based on a 2021 study conducted by the Amsterdam University of Applied

01:06Sciences, which found that more than 500,000 Dutch households unnecessarily spend 10% of their income

01:12on energy bills. Now, it is true that the EU is facing an energy crisis as the war in Iran

01:17has sent

01:18price shocks across the globe. This is due to ballooning oil and gas prices and the closure of the

01:22Strait of Hormuz. The EU, since 2022, has reduced its reliance on Russian resources by finding new

01:29suppliers, filling gas storage, and producing more of its own energy through renewables. It has also

01:34strengthened key systems like larger gas storage reserves, expanded energy import terminals, and

01:40bettered cross-border electricity connections. So Zakharova's claims misinterpret the situation as

01:45energy-saving initiatives are long-standing and common in the EU, and in the case of the ones she quotes,

01:50not evidence of a new crisis caused by current geopolitical events.

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