The Czech Republic spent 5 times more on Russian oil than on supporting Ukraine: Politico
The Czech Republic has allowed its refineries to earn more than a billion euros in profits thanks to discounts on Russian fuel, even though the country has alternatives and can do without Russian energy resources. About this writes Politico, citing research from the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research.
According to experts, this year the Czech Republic spent more than 7 billion euros on the purchase of Russian oil and gas, which is more than five times the amount of aid to Ukraine, for which Prague allocated 1.29 billion euros.
This situation arose thanks to the exception granted by the European Union to the Czech Republic regarding the ban on the supply of Russian oil after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine. The exception was intended to give landlocked countries extra time to find new fuel routes.
Despite the government’s initial intentions to reduce dependence on Russian energy resources, in 2023 this dependence increased to about 60%. However, the report notes that the Czech Republic had every opportunity to completely abandon Russian oil, taking advantage of the free capacity of the Transalpine pipeline, which delivers oil from the Italian port of Trieste, and the Adria pipeline, which connects this route to the Druzhba oil depot in Slovakia.
