Rota also put his hand on his lap. Although the Netherlands warned of Russian aggressiveness in 2014 over the MH17 drama, the Netherlands remains highly dependent on oil and gas from Russia.

However, there is a reason for this naivety. Rotta: “Make no mistake, in January and February, Putin held discussions with French President Macron about certain security guarantees for Russians on the European continent. A completely legitimate discussion without turning Ukraine into a buffer state. And suddenly Putin invades that country for no reason and causes chaos. This will have long consequences. Term “.

A complete boycott is not at hand

Thus, the complete boycott of Russian oil and gas, as implemented by the Canadians, aimed at the United States, is not on the agenda at the moment. Ruti said it would cause economic chaos. Not only in the Netherlands and other Western European countries, but also in Ukraine itself.

So there is a limit to the economic sanctions that can be implemented. But with Johnson and Trudeau, Rutte also believes sanctions should be tightened further in the coming days.

One option is to keep Russian ships out of Rotterdam and other Dutch ports. We are open to this, but only in cooperation with other ports. Otherwise, such a measure will have no effect and Russian ships will simply go to other European ports. ”

In the field of oil and gas sanctions, Rutte made a different voice than that of Johnson and Trudeau. But they found support in recent weeks by lobbying for a Russian boycott of the global payment system Swift at an early stage. Trudeau made it clear that in the past week it seemed impossible to find support for that, but that he, like Johnson, was pleasantly surprised by the pace at which these sanctions have been adopted by other countries.

World War III

According to Rutte, this international solidarity with Ukraine and the common indignation over Russia’s atrocities should be cherished. But it remains necessary to prevent the situation from escalating further. This will happen if a “no-fly zone” is declared over Ukraine. According to Root, this would almost certainly lead to Russian and possibly American planes collide with each other, which would likely cause a third world war.

According to Root, the gradual plan announced by Johnson to tighten economic sanctions is in line with thinking about the European Union. It will not put an end to the terrible situation in Ukraine in the short term, but it will hit Russia hard. Just look at the huge waiting lists for Russian banks and the growing number of Western companies pulling out of Russia.”