Russia has huge business links with the following Nations; Germany (biggest Russia gas consumer), China (biggest consumer of its oil), Turkey (major trade partner) and a host of other countries.
At the start of the invasion, nations were weighing in against Putin’s action in Ukraine. China was clearly on Russia’s side, while Turkey remained a Middleman between Russia and Ukraine.
It has assumed the role of mediator between Putin and Zelensky. It does reasonably appear that Turkey’s President Erdogan does not want to ruffle economic relations between the two Nations.
With Putin’s threat of cutting off supply, many EU and NATO countries were disjointed in the opposition against him.
However, the US, the leading punch man of the NATO allies, charged them to be resolute and drop the dependence on Russia for energy; President Joe Biden was clear about this. He promised unalloyed support to allies.
After UK’s PM Boris Johnson’s decision to cut off Russia’s Energy supply (though not much comes from Russia), there was an increased call on Germany to come out openly. And though it took a while and many diplomatic interactions to get Chancellor Olaf Scholz to fall in line. He put on hold the Nord 2 stream contract which would have ensured more gas and revenue to his coffers.
Chancellor Scholz decided to call Putin’s bluff in line with US expectation so that joint action against him will gain traction. Now, Germany has emerged a huge supporter of Zelensky’s defense of his country.
Nordic duo of Finland and Sweden
466 years from 1956 Finland has remained neutral about world ideological/military blocks having gained independence from Sweden in 1917.
Sweden also battled Russia for control of Finland in 1808. The Finnish people and Swedes are tied closely together for a long time.
After Russia’s attack against Ukraine, both countries became apprehensive of their closest bully nation. This led to about 76 percent of Finns, in May 2022, to opt for joining NATO. This is up from 24 percent a year ago. The same goes for Sweden, which has 37 percent support for joining NATO last year.
Now 48 percent are pushing for aligning with the Organization. Putin is now baring his fangs in cutting off gas to Finland a week ago on the ground that its neighbor defaulted in not paying in rubles.