Europe’s energy crisis, triggered by Russia slashing natural gas flows amid its war against Ukraine, has forced some people to turn to cheaper heating sources like firewood as the weather gets colder.
Smaller countries see Germany’s domestic largess to tackle spiraling energy costs as undermining the effort to lower fuel prices for the wider European Union.
Vladimir Putin’s weaponization of natural gas — withholding shipments, Europeans say, to punish the West for imposing sanctions on Russia — is dropping a bomb on consumers in some of the richest countries on earth.
