Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed European Union (EU) countries on Friday to suggest they lift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to ease complaints about rising gas prices in winter.
“Anyway, if you are impatient, if everything is so difficult, decide and lift the sanctions on Nord Stream 2, it is 55 billion cubic meters a year. Just press the button and everything will be fixed,” the Kremlin leader told a conference. press release at the end of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Putin recalled that it was not Russia that blocked Nord Stream 2, but Germany, and even before the start of the military campaign in Ukraine on February 24.
The Russian president also assured that Moscow did not intentionally cut off gas to Europe through Nord Stream 1, but was forced to make that decision because it did not receive spare parts for the turbines and that they stopped working due to sanctions.
The EU has insisted that the Russian turbines are not subject to sanctions, but Putin countered that they are subject to British law, as the British subsidiary of Siemens handles repairs and maintenance of the pipeline’s engines.
“Are we to blame? Think who is to blame. Don’t blame us for our own mistakes,” he stressed.
Putin further emphasized that the Russian gas giant Gazprom and the Russian government have fulfilled and continue to fulfill all contractual obligations.
“On this side there have never been failures, nor will there be,” he defended.
In Putin’s opinion, Europe wants to blame Moscow “to protect itself from the outrage of its own citizens” over the energy crisis.
“This is another attempt to transfer the problem or headache from the sick to the healthy. The energy crisis in Europe did not start with the start of the special military operation [na Ucrânia]but much earlier,” he explained.
At the same time, Putin confirmed in Samarkand the “next” shipment of natural gas to Turkey, which he described as a “reliable partner”, and announced that “a quarter” of these shipments would be paid for in rubles.
This statement, issued after the bilateral meeting he had with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, confirms the agreement signed between the two leaders during their previous personal contact in early August in Sochi, in southern Russia.
Putin also indicated that he had received “the signal” authorizing the export of Russian products from Turkish ports, and when Russia remains subject to heavy Western sanctions.
“Our companies have received the signal that they will be able to export their products from Turkey,” he announced, expressing the intention to “significantly increase” trade with Ankara.
Turkey was instrumental in concluding in July, under the auspices of the United Nations, an agreement with kyiv and Moscow that allows the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea and the Bosporus.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people -more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.2 million to European countries-, according to the most recent data from the UN, which places this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the generality of the international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia. political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 5,827 civilian deaths and 8,421 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
