Putin rejects EU and Ukraine accusations against Gazprom | News from Germany about Russia | Dw

At the annual big press conference on Thursday, December 23, in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the accusations of the European Union and Ukraine against Gazprom that the actions of the Russian state concern, limiting gas supplies to Europe, led to a record increase in gas prices …

A complaint that Gazprom is abusing its dominant position in the European gas market has already been sent to the European Commission by Naftogaz Ukrainy. She pointed out that Gazprom has sharply reduced the sale of its own gas in the European spot market, despite the growing demand, and also limits additional supplies from other companies. Naftogaz is requesting immediate measures to normalize the situation.

“There is no truth here,” Putin said. According to him, Gazprom not only supplies gas to its customers under existing contracts, but even increased its supply, in particular, to Germany, which is the largest recipient of this energy carrier from Russia, as well as to Italy.

Putin: Europeans are to blame for the rise in prices

The President of the Russian Federation blamed the rise in prices on the spot markets on the Europeans themselves, who, according to him, hoped that the market would regulate prices. “So he regulated it,” Putin said, stressing that gas prices under long-term contracts are now several times lower than spot prices.

Recall that spot prices for natural gas in Europe on December 21 reached a historic maximum, for the first time exceeding the level of 2000 dollars (1770 euros) per thousand cubic meters. Many attribute this to the fact that Gazprom has stopped pumping gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.

However, Putin explained this by the absence of applications from European gas buyers. Moreover, the Russian president said that Germany, having switched the gas pipeline to reverse mode, is pumping additional volumes of gas received from Gazprom to Poland, from where, according to Putin, it can be transported further – to Ukraine.

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  Author: Andrey Gurkov

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