# Russian economic retaliation

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-economic-retaliation/682833>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 4, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-economic-retaliation/682833 "2014-03-04T17:27:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-economic-retaliation/682833/1 "2014-03-04T17:27:53Z")

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Let’s say that the West slaps economic sanctions on Russia, and Putin responds by cutting off all oil & gas to Europe. How much would this hurt Europe, and how quickly?

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**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-economic-retaliation/682833/2 "2014-03-04T17:43:38Z")

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You are making an interesting point.

European factories and consumers _need_ those gas and oil supplies right away, or their stuff (cars, heating, factories, electric power stations, etc etc) stops working. The price would skyrocket because demand for oil & gas is fairly inelastic.

Russia would not be making as much money selling oil and gas : presumably they would sell a lower volume at a lower price. Less money would flow to them.

In dollars, I wonder who suffers more? I want to say Europe, but there must be a formal textbook answer to work this out.