No, they're not. The bottom line is we have to have policies that are based on science and technology that undergird our decision-making. Simply to set up this scenario in which we're pushing back on disinformation to call someone's bluff...the fact of the matter is that the German government several times pointed out that this was not backed up by technical reality—the Bundesnetzagentur, the Wirtschaftsministerium, etc. Siemens just this week said about this purported oil leak that “such leaks do not normally affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed on site. It is a routine procedure within the scope of maintenance work.... In the past...the occurrence of this type of leak has not led to a shutdown of operations.
The bottom line is we need to turn back these waivers to restore sanctions unity because Putin will enact as much as possible energy weaponization to open up where he's really being hurt right now, which is in technology-calibrated sanctions that are undermining his ability to get systems that can drive his economy, energy technologies and things of this nature, and also dual-use weapons technologies—things like semiconductors. There have been any number of reports of Ukrainian military personnel opening up captured Russian military equipment and, lo and behold, inside are commercial semiconductor products that are stripped out of products like washing machines and dishwashers and things like this. That means our technology sanctions are working. That's why we can't allow energy weaponization to push back on this technology-calibrated sanctions approach. That's why, as global democracies, we collectively have to have foreign policy that is driven by technical reality.