Putin states Russia is not utilizing gas as a weapon, is prepared to assist Europe

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Putin says Russia is not using gas as a weapon, is ready to help Europe

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Russian President Vladimir Putin talks throughout a plenary session of the Russian Energy Week International Forum in Moscow, Russia October 13, 2021.

Sergei Ilnitsky|Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Wednesday that his nation is not utilizing energy as a weapon versus Europe which Russia stands prepared to assist the area as its energy crisis continues.

“We are not using any weapons,” Putin informed CNBC in Moscow on Wednesday, according to a translation. “Even during the hardest parts of the Cold War Russia regularly has fulfilled its contractual obligations and supplies gas to Europe,” he stated.

Describing reports that Russia has actually kept gas products to Europe, Putin called such allegations “politically motivated blather” and there was “absolutely nothing to support it [the idea] that we utilize energy as a sort of weapon.” On the contrary, he stated, Russia was “expanding its supplies to Europe.”

Putin’s remarks came as he took part in a panel moderated by CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at Russian Energy Week, a yearly occasion in Moscow which is now in its 20 th year. Speaking ahead of the panel, that included the CEOs of ExxonMobil, BP, TotalEnergies and Mercedez-Benz, Putin stated that Europe must “not deal in blame-shifting” over the energy crisis in the area which European nations had actually refrained from doing enough to renew gas reserves in the summer season.

“Higher gas prices in Europe are a consequence of a deficit of energy and not vice versa and that’s why we should not deal in blame shifting, this is what our partners are trying to do,” he informed delegates at the occasion.

“The European gas market does not look to be well-balanced and predictable” he stated, with the primary factor being, he included “that not everything in this market depends on the producers, no lesser role is played by the consumers of gas.”

‘Need demands’

Nonetheless, Russia stated it was prepared to satisfy its legal supply commitments and to talk about extra actions and cooperation with its European partners, Putin stated, specifying that Russia had actually currently increased its gas products to Europe by 15% up until now this year.

Putin laid the blame for Europe’s gas lacks at its own door, in addition to blaming an absence of renewable resource generation this summer season and lowered products from other partners, consisting of the U.S.

“You see the problem does not consist in us, it consists in the European side, because, first, we know that the wind farms did not work during summer because of the weather, everyone knows that. Moreover, the Europeans did not pump enough gas into their underground gas facilities … and the supplies to Europe have decreased from other regions of the world.”

“So we have increased our supplies but others, including the U.S., have reduced their supplies and this is the cause of the panic.” Russia can provide more, he stated, “but we need requests to do that.”

Russian Energy Week is understood to be where the president sets out his energy program for the Russian economy and functions specialists talking about politics, pipelines, financial investment and environment modification in addition to threats to worldwide development and security.

His remarks come as Europe continues to come to grips with a gas crisis following weeks of increasing rates and issues ahead of the winter.

Undersupplied the marketplace?

Last week, Putin used to increase gas products to the area, a relocation that assisted to support rates. However, critics of the Kremlin stated Russia had actually actively undersupplied the marketplace in order to produce the crisis in order to highlight and highlight Europe’s reliance on its products, an allegation Russia rejects.

Experts think Russia has actually been limiting gas products to Europe in an effort to put pressure on Germany to accelerate the accreditation of the now-completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will increase gas products to Europe by means of the Baltic Sea.

The pipeline has a variety of popular critics, consisting of the U.S. in addition to Eastern European nations Poland and Ukraine, who state the pipeline boosts Europe’s reliance on Russian energy products and compromises the area in regards to energy security.

Fast forward to today, and Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov stated Wednesday that Russia was providing gas to Europe at optimum levels under existing agreements, according to the Tass news company. He kept in mind Moscow was prepared to increase gas transit through Ukraine if the EU enhanced its purchases.

Russia is the third-largest manufacturer of nonrenewable fuel sources internationally and it represents simply more than 40% of the EU’s gas imports every year, according to the most recent information from Eurostat.

Given Russia’s function as one of the world’s primary energy exporters, it remains in a position of both strength and weak point. While Russia can (and does) utilize its resources to reinforce federal government profits, the worldwide shift far from nonrenewable fuel sources to greener energies and innovations implies that it might discover significantly smaller sized need for its resources in future.

Putin, who has actually been in power in Russia for more than 20 years, rotating in between the function of president and prime minister, discovers himself at the helm amidst this larger worldwide shift.