Senate Democrats voted down Sen. Ted Cruz’s bill to reimpose sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 energy pipeline on Thursday. Democrats are instead set to approve a weaker, deferred sanctions bill next week.

Democrats have made a serious strategic error, and Vladimir Putin is already demonstrating why. The Russian leader has suspended thermal coal supplies to Ukraine for nearly three months and has reversed energy flows through his Yamal gas pipeline to Europe for three weeks. Simultaneously, Russia’s Gazprom energy giant (the CEO of which takes direct orders from Putin) is refusing to provide increased supplies to Europe. This has helped to drive European gas prices far above $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters.