Estonia urges EU to stop buying Russian energy by 2026

Estonian President Alar Karis has called on the European Union to halt all imports of Russian energy by 2026 and to maintain pressure on Moscow through further sanctions.

The European Commission had previously announced plans to phase out Russian energy imports by the end of 2027, Caliber.Az reports per Estonian media.

A draft roadmap was unveiled in early May.

As part of this plan, the Commission is expected to propose legislation in June to ban all imports under new Russian gas contracts and existing spot agreements. If approved, the ban would take effect by the end of 2025.

Further restrictions on pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported under long-term contracts are also under consideration. These could be phased out by the end of 2027.

President Karis said the EU should act faster and stop importing Russian energy by 2026 to keep up the economic pressure on the Kremlin.

Note that, since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Russian energy exports have undergone significant realignment. European Union countries, previously heavily reliant on Russian pipeline gas and crude oil, moved swiftly to curtail imports.

Russian pipeline gas to the EU dropped from around 150 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2021 to just 43 bcm in 2023, reducing Moscow’s share of the EU gas market from 45% to 15%. Crude oil imports fell even more steeply, down 82% year-on-year by mid-2023. Coal imports from Russia were also banned.

Yet, Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) emerged as a striking exception. Despite sanctions on other fossil fuels, EU purchases of Russian LNG increased by nearly 40% between 2021 and 2023.

In 2024 alone, the EU bought 24.2 bcm of Russian LNG and paid €7.3 billion for it—part of the €21.9 billion spent on all Russian fossil fuels that year, exceeding the EU’s military support for Ukraine.

These imports continued via loopholes such as spot contracts and LNG re-export terminals, with additional flows routed through intermediary nations like Türkiye and India.

Although the EU aims to phase out all Russian energy imports by 2027, LNG remains a geopolitical and regulatory blind spot in the bloc’s energy strategy.

By Aghakazim Guliyev