Putin Comments on EU Gas Situation Whilst on Iran Trip

Further comments by Putin speaking in Iran on the Gazprom/EU gas situation – reported by Russia’s Interfax:

• On warnings to German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz - "We have another ready route, Nord Stream 2. It can be launched. But it is not being launched. But there are problems here, too. We discussed this issue with the chancellor, and I raised this issue," Putin said.
• "I said Gazprom has created capacities, has reserved them, and it needs to do something with it. They can't hang in the air forever. The answer was that there are other, more important issues now, it's difficult to tackle it now, and it's not the right timing. However, I had to warn him that we would take half of the volumes intended for Nord Stream 2 for internal consumption and processing then. I talked about that issue at Gazprom's request, and Gazprom has already done that," Putin said.
• "Therefore, even if we launch Nord Stream 2 tomorrow, it won't be 55 million cubic meters a year, but exactly half of that. In addition, bearing in mind that only the second half is left of this year, it means only one-fourth. That's the situation with the supplies," he said.
• "The European countries neglected the significance of traditional energy types and focused on non-traditional ones, such as solar and wind energy. The winter turned out to be long, there was no wind, and that was it. In addition, investment in traditional energy decreased due to the political decisions made earlier. Banks are not financing, insurance companies are not insuring, local authorities are not providing plots for new development, the pipeline and other transport is not developing. That is the result of politics during the previous decades. That's where everything started (and not due to some actions taken by Russia and Gazprom) and the prices started going up!" Putin said.
• "It is our Russian gas, which turned out to be cheaper to the Poles. They bought from us at a fairly high price, closer to the market one, and Germany is buying from us under long-term contracts, 3-4 times cheaper than the market price. It is profitable for German companies to sell to the Poles with a small bonus. It is profitable for the Poles to buy because it is cheaper than to buy from us directly. But the gas volume on the European market has decreased, and the total price on the market has gone up. Who won? All Europeans lost," he said.