Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and many Ukrainians urged Europe to impose an embargo on Russian energy resources, which had long been essential to the European economy. The first economic sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia were unprecedented in scale and severity, yet they did not cover oil and gas and did little to halt Russian aggression. Given subsequent discoveries regarding the atrocities committed by Russian troops, the EU proposed rapid sanctions on the Russian oil industry. Natural gas, which is almost impossible to source elsewhere at such short notice, is not yet subject to EU sanctions, but Russia has imposed counter-sanctions on European gas companies. Now, Europe is facing an energy crisis with all the economic and political consequences that follow.

Long-time Russian energy expert Thane Gustafson (Thane Gustafson) published his book Klimats: Krievija klimata pārmaiņu laikmetā even before the invasion; this was at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic still seemed like a major and unexpected event that complicated all projections. However, by turning to the future of the Russian energy, grain, and metal markets, which have changed their configuration due to the war and new sanctions, the article was very timely. T. Gustafson argues that the days of Russia's power, financed by fossil hydrocarbons, are numbered. Unfortunately, the end of this era will not come so soon for the Ukrainians or the planet.

Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world on average, and the Arctic region is warming even faster. Moscow eagerly promotes the cliché that the country will be a relative winner of climate change because it will benefit from the now-accessible (as the ice melts) Northern Sea Route, a longer growing season, and the expansion of agricultural land in thawed territories. T. Gustafson disputes this with a dry but convincing collection of facts, arguing that the redistribution of wealth and power caused by climate change condemns Russia to ruin. After reading Klimats: Krievija klimata pārmaiņu laikmetā, Russia's attack on Ukraine begins to look like the convulsions of a dying state. (...)