(Echoing Aaron Maté: Why didn't Putin pre-war threaten to stop oil+gas supplies or hike prices?)


Quote(Aaron Maté, August 2022, "Rising" interview below):

"I can't accept the argument that just because Russia
was provoked means it was justified. And I can't accept the argument from Russia that they had no other option other than to invade Ukraine. Why didn't Putin for example do what he's doing now and reduce energy supplies to the rest of Europe...?"
- From "Rising" - interview (at 6'10") with Aaron Maté, August 2022" - watch below.

So my own question/comment is virtually identical to Aaron Maté's - why didn't Putin make the following pledge/threat or similar pre-war? >>>

"If the implementation of the Minsk Accords does not begin before February 2022 Russia will respond by doubling the price of oil and gas and limiting supplies to Germany and other EU nations while increasing exports to existing and new partners elsewhere etc."

Also: if Putin and Lavrov had loudly and repeatedly threatened/pledged to do this on the world stage in late 2021 or in Jan 2022 it would - crucially - have finally forced the world's media to break their deafening Minsk Accord silence and their audiences' Minsk Accord ignorance.

So here is Aaron Maté (at 6'10") (heretically?) stating more or less the same thing last year - and insisting that Putin did not exhaust all alternatives to war:






Quote repeat(Aaron Maté):

"I can't accept the argument that just because Russia was provoked means it was justified. And I can't accept the argument from Russia that they had no other option other than to invade Ukraine. Why didn't Putin for example do what he's doing now and reduce energy supplies to the rest of Europe...?"