DISINFO: Potential ban on Russian LNG supplies would cost the EU one-fifth of imports
SUMMARY
A potential ban on Russian LNG supplies would cost the EU one-fifth of its imports. Russia is the second largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union, which means that the bloc's potential ban on Russian LNG will cost it a 19% share of its imports, as over the past year Russia increased its share of the bloc's imports by 5 percentage points to 19%.
RESPONSE
This claim distorts facts and figures; the numbers are fabricated. According to Eurostat, EU imports of Russian LNG account for only 5 percent of the bloc's energy consumption, while Russian gas—both LNG and pipeline—comprises around 15 percent. Therefore, the assertion that Russian LNG represents 'one fifth' of EU imports is unsubstantiated.
Also, although the contents of the upcoming 14th package of sanctions were not yet public at the time this disinformation story was published, available information indicates that it will not ban purchases of Russian LNG within the bloc.
Instead, it will target future revenues from three Russian projects—Arctic LNG 2, Ust-Luga, and Murmansk—that are not yet operational, as well as transshipments. This means it will prohibit the import of Russian supplies that are then re-exported to third countries from European ports. By distorting these details, the disinformation story aims to dissuade the EU from adopting this new package of sanctions by falsely portraying it as having severe economic consequences for Europeans.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that seizing Russian assets would plunge the whole world into serious economic troubles, that the EU’s disintegration is close due to its anti-Russia sanctions, that Western sanctions on Russian energy jeopardize the global economy, or that the EU anti-Russian sanctions kill the economic sovereignty of Europe.