The Europeans and Americans themselves are to blame for the energy crisis in Europe, the accusations against Gazprom are due to the need to find a scapegoat. On January 15, Oleg Matveychev, a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party, told Izvestia about this, commenting on the words of the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, who accused Gazprom of creating tension in the European energy market.
“The blame for the current gas crisis lies entirely with the Europeans and the Americans. The Europeans refused long-term contracts with Gazprom and said that everything would be settled by the market. Thus, they gave their own market to speculators, who can easily increase prices there through futures. The second is the Americans. When prices rose in Asia, they sent part of their tankers that were going to Europe to Asia. And thus, a deficit was also created on the European market,” he explained.
The introduction of green energy in Europe also played a negative role, according to the deputy.
“Decisions were made a long time ago, a few years ago, that they are switching to wind farms and solar panels, which turned out to be inefficient, as expected. In addition, Germany is also extinguishing the nuclear reactors that they had. All this together creates a deficit, ”said Matveychev.
He noted that no government wants to be guilty before its own people, so it was necessary to find a “scapegoat”.
“Since the Russophobic campaign has been promoted since 2014 and, out of habit, the Russians, Gazprom, [президент РФ Владимир] Putin and so on, then in the same pile, Russia is again mixed in with this gas, ”the deputy emphasized.
Matveychev also added that the current “hysteria” in Europe only worsens the situation, because due to public opinion and the Americans, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is not being put into operation, which could provide additional gas and lower prices.
“Thus, people are simply inadequate and suffer from their inadequacy,” he summed up.
Earlier in the day, German publicist Christopher Herstl noted in a commentary to Izvestia that Gazprom was supplying even more gas to Europe than stipulated in the contracts. He added that the claims against Gazprom sound strange against the backdrop of the European and German side delaying the certification of Nord Stream 2.
At the same time, Vladislav Belov, deputy director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia that Gazprom was fulfilling all obligations to supply Europe with gas and even supplied additional volumes there. According to him, the reduction in spot sales was not due to the fact that the Russian company did not supply energy, but because no one wanted to buy them at high spot prices.
At the same time, an expert from the Financial University under the Government of Russia, Stanislav Mitrakhovich, in a comment to Izvestia, noted that Gazprom is not obliged to supply additional volumes of gas through the spot mechanism and is not interested in this. He called the accusations against Russia “shifting from a sick head to a healthy one.”
Prior to this, on January 12, the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said that Gazprom could increase supplies to Europe by at least a third, but did not. In his opinion, this creates tension in the European energy market.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
