Putin Blames the West’s Crazy Policies for Europe’s Energy Crisis

July 20, 2022 (EIRNS)—Europe keeps trying to blame Russia for its energy woes, but its own policies have produced the current crisis, President Vladimir Putin told a press gathering in Tehran following his attendance at the Astana Format summit with Iran and Turkey on July 19.

“What does Gazprom have to do with it?” Putin asked. Referring to Europe’s sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Putin said:

“They closed one route, the second route, and put these gas pumping stations under sanctions. Gazprom is ready to pump as much as necessary, but [the West] closed everything themselves. And they are stepping on the same rake when it comes to oil and petroleum.... Gazprom has always fulfilled, fulfills and will continue to fulfill all of its obligations,”

yet it encounters obstacles coming from Europe’s own policies. His remarks are posted to the Kremlin website.

Putin also warned that Gazprom has received no official documents on the promised delivery of the turbine from Siemens which was being repaired in Canada, without which gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will be reduced by half.

“I don’t know whether it is worth going into detail concerning the energy policy of European nations who disregarded the importance of traditional energy sources and staked everything on non-traditional ones. They are big specialists in non-traditional relations. And in the energy sector, they also opted to stake all on non-traditional types of energy....

“Nowadays, we hear all sorts of preposterous ideas with regards to limiting the volumes and restricting the price of Russian oil. This is absolutely identical to what’s going on with gas.... The result will be the same—a price hike. Oil prices will skyrocket.”

In its coverage of Putin’s remarks, RT reminds its readers that last month Putin criticized the European Union’s energy policy for neglecting the “traditional energy” sector—coal, oil, gas and nuclear—in favor of “green” projects such as wind and solar. In his remarks yesterday, he said: “Last winter was long, there was no wind, and that did it. Investment in the fixed assets of traditional energy producers has decreased because of previous political decisions: banks do not finance them, insurance companies do not insure them, local governments do not allocate land plots for new projects, and pipeline and other forms of transportation are not developing.”