Time: Europe Still Can’t Break Its Addiction to Russian Energy

The Ukraine crisis has made Europe confront its dependence on Russian energy supplies once again, but Thursday's summit in Brussels could not come up with any new ways to fix it.

Russians have a colorful term for the notion of energy dependence. “The oil-and-gas needle,” which evokes the image of a heroin syringe filled with crude, is used to describe the twin addictions of the European energy market. Russia’s economy depends on the sale of energy to Europe just as Europe depends on Russia for its fuel supplies, and neither side seems capable of weaning itself off the habit. On Thursday Europe pledged once again to try, though history suggestsit has no chance of going cold turkey.

At a summit of the G7 club of wealthy nations in Brussels, the U.S. pledged to work with its European allies to end its energy dependency on Russia, in the hope of preventing the Kremlin from using oil and gas as tools of political influence.
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