As the European Union’s impasse over its supposedly imminent Russian oil embargo stretched into days and then weeks, one ambassador quoted Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” to his colleagues: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!” Diplomats and officials are getting increasingly frustrated the EU may be reaching the limits of the short-term pain it can inflict on Russia already three months after its invasion of Ukraine. Member states are failing to deliver on promises to hit President Vladimir Putin where it hurts: the lucrative energy industry. The focus has been on Hungary’s refusal to back sanctions, but other countries are yielding to Putin’s demands for gas payments in rubles. The unflattering optics highlight the limits of the EU’s strategy to back tough rhetoric with action that requires unanimity among all its 27 members. Ahead of […]