Moscow: In a major announcement, Russia on Wednesday said that Moscow is ready to supply additional gas to Europe in the autumn-winter period.
According to a Reuters report, Russian President Vladimir Putin while speaking at the ‘Russia Energy Week-Energy Epoch Revolution and Shift’ event said that “Russia is ready to start these supplies, the ball is in the EU’s court, so to say. If they want to, just let them open the tap and that’s it. We are not restricting anyone in anything, including our readiness to supply additional volumes in the autumn-winter period,”.
The report further quoted Putin saying that “I have repeatedly said that Nord Streams has no political background, it is a purely commercial project, involving Russian and European companies on an equal footing, so its fate should be decided jointly by Russia and our partners in the European Union.”
Talking about the Nord Steam Leak he said “There is no doubt that this is an act of international terrorism…,”.
He further alleged that the US and other countries with alternative lines of supply routes are the beneficiaries of the Nord Stream bombing.
On the backdrop of the Crimea Bridge blast, he said that Ukraine is using terrorist methods to sabotage Russian infrastructure.
“Mechanism of spot pricing for gas could see Europe lose 300 billion euro,” said Putin on the Group of Seven (G7) pledge to put a cap on the price of Russian oil sold worldwide.
Putin called an oil price cap discussed by European leaders “a threat to the well-being of billions of people”, after saying Russia will not sell to countries implementing it.
He also said that Russia will revolutionize its own energy industry, and link projects to Asia.
(With Agency Inputs)