Tariffs on Russian energy are a smart way to hobble Vladimir Putin

THE INDUSTRIAL outskirts of Lubmin, a town on the windswept Baltic coast of what was once East Germany, feature in no tourist guide. Nor is the port of Rotterdam, the grittiest part of a city already struggling for charm, much of an attraction. Certainly neither has the appeal of Notre Dame or Venice, as Luis Garicano, an MEP, economics professor and recent day-tripper to both can attest. Yet few places could help a vacationer to Europe better make sense of what is actually happening there today. In the Dutch port, ships from Russia discreetly unload lakes of crude oil each worth up to $80m, to be processed in European refineries. Even further from the public gaze, the Nord Stream pipeline makes landfall at Lubmin, pumping Siberian gas for which customers in Germany and beyond send back over €160m ($174m) every day. This is the dark economic underbelly of Europe, a continent that congratulates itself on aiding Ukraine while having paid nearly €40bn for Russian energy since the war started eight weeks ago.