“They did it themselves”: Putin on gas problems for Europe
Russia will remain a major exporter of energy resources, despite Western sanctions. A big market for it is China and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this at the Eastern Economic Forum, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The demand is so great on world markets that we have no problems with sales. Moreover, with such a large economy, in fact, it is the largest economy in the world today in terms of purchasing power parity, the Chinese economy is larger than the American one, needs are growing, our agreements are stable, relations are at an unprecedented high level, “Power of Siberia” is working in full.
We are also studying other routes - another possible route through the Primorsky Territory, perhaps through Mongolia... But not only that - we will engage in liquefaction, we will sell all over the world... Everyone is buying. It’s profitable - they will buy it, so we don’t have any problems,” Putin said.
Putin criticized the desire of the European Union countries to introduce manual regulation of gas prices, calling it futile.
“If for some reason European countries suddenly want to give up, including their competitive advantages, that’s their business. [Limiting gas prices] is another stupidity, another non-market solution that has no prospects. All administrative restrictions in the field of world trade only lead to imbalances and higher prices.
What is happening now in European markets is the result of the work of European specialists and the European Commission. We have always insisted that prices be formed on the basis of long-term contracts and be tied to a market category such as prices for oil and petroleum products, to a basket...
They told us: “No, this is not entirely market-based, you need to focus on the spot market”... “No,” they told us, believing that the price was too high: 100 dollars per thousand cubic meters, which seemed very high to them, or 300 dollars later. These were the prices. Now the price has already gone up to three thousand euros,” Putin recalled.
The President also emphasized that the Europeans themselves are to blame for the current rise in gas prices, who have limited the supply of Russian gas through existing gas pipelines and refuse to put into operation the constructed Nord Stream 2.
“They did a lot of things themselves, and now they don’t know what to do about it. We have driven ourselves into the so-called sanctions impasse. There is only one way out - in Germany now, we see, there are demonstrations demanding the inclusion of Nord Stream 2. Well, we share these consumer demands, we are ready to do it tomorrow - you just need to press a button, but it was not we who imposed sanctions on Nord Stream 2,” the president said.
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