{"id":338561,"date":"2026-03-10T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T10:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/338561\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T10:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T10:00:08","slug":"eu-buying-russian-oil-would-be-utterly-despicable-irelands-deputy-premier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/338561\/","title":{"rendered":"EU buying Russian oil would be \u2018utterly despicable\u2019 \u2013 Ireland\u2019s deputy premier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It would be \u201cutterly despicable\u201d to allow Russia to gain financially by selling oil and gas to Europe, Ireland\u2019s deputy premier has said.<\/p>\n<p>The European Union has been phasing out its use of Russian gas and oil following the country\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly said his country is willing to work with European customers amid an energy crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, Tanaiste Simon Harris said it was important the bloc \u201cremains steadfast\u201d in its view that economic sanctions on Russia are an important tool in trying to end the war on the continent of Europe.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773133501400_1.jpg--.jpg\" width=\"640\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cThe idea that Putin and Putin\u2019s Russia would in any way benefit financially from a moment of conflict and pain and trauma in the Gulf region would be utterly despicable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt shows the importance of de-escalating the conflict in the Gulf region, and it also shows the importance of not losing focus on Ukraine and showing solidarity to our friends, to our European friends in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Harris said a fall in oil prices showed the \u201cvolatility\u201d of the situation while the Irish Government keeps its response \u201cunder review\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked what action he wants the EU to take on energy costs, he said Europe\u2019s energy market has become more diversified than it was in 2022 but added: \u201cI think we still find ourselves far too reliant on other parts of the world when it comes to our energy and certainly this needs to be a sharp reminder and wake-up call about the urgency of moving towards energy independence at a European level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It would be \u201cutterly despicable\u201d to allow Russia to gain financially by selling oil and gas to Europe,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5148,61,11829,60,43,70,5936],"class_list":["post-338561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-european-union","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-simon-harris","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}