As talk of an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine grows among Western diplomats, and Volodymyr Zelensky comes round to the idea of what he calls a “just peace”, the true human cost of Vladimir Putin’s neo-imperialist land grab remains a source of great debate.
The decision this week of the Austrian government-backed OMV to terminate a long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom could deliver the final crippling blow to Putin’s dwindling energy empire. The loss of Viennese patronage following a dispute over outstanding supplies will be felt keenly. While most of Europe has quickly turned its back on Putin’s pariah police state, Austria has walked a tightrope of “military neutrality”. The country has stopped short of openly supporting Moscow but has been careful not to damage a lucrative relationship stretching back decades by providing tangible support for Kyiv.
So OMV’s decision to end that deal is more than just the conclusion of a mutually beneficial financial arrangement – it marks the end of an era, too, that began more than half a century ago in 1968, when Austria became the first Western European country to import Soviet gas, via its Baumgarten facility near the border with Slovakia.
A pact signed between Russia’s state-backed oil firm Rosneft and Indian refining giant Reliance for the delivery of nearly 500,000 barrels of Russian crude per day, just as OMV was pulling the escape hatch, will embolden the optimists. Worth $13bn, it is the biggest-ever energy deal forged between the Kremlin and New Delhi.