Moscow – AFP
The Russian giant “Gosprom” group has criticized Germany’s resale of gas to Poland at the height of inflation, and denied that Moscow is deliberately reducing its exports to Europe.
Gasprom spokesman Sergei Kubryanov said in a video broadcast on Saturday evening: “We see three to five million cubic meters of gas flow per day reversing from Germany to Poland and apparently to Ukraine.”
He added, “This gas comes from underground reservoirs in Germany; Although winter was in its infancy, where he used 47 percent of the gas in it, he said, “This decision is not very rational.”
Kubryanov added that the prices of these exports were “much higher than the quantities received by Gazprom”.
On Wednesday, Poland’s permanent representative to the European Union accused Moscow of halting gas exports through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline between Russia, Poland and Germany.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded on Thursday by insisting that Gazprom did not send new exports through the pipeline due to the lack of new European orders.
Western Europe has been facing an insane rise in gas prices for months. These include the very cold winter of 2020-2021, or the economic recovery after the Govt-19 epidemic, and the decline in the supply of renewable energy.
Gas prices in Europe hit a new record on Tuesday, with lower temperatures and geopolitical tensions between the EU and Moscow accounting for a third of European supplies.
Westerners suspect that Russia is restricting its exports in order to put pressure on Europeans and make profits on multiple files, including the introduction of the Russian-German gas pipeline “Nord Stream 2”.
“The allegations against Russia and Gosprom that we supply small quantities of gas to the European market are completely baseless,” Kubryanov said Saturday.
“Gasprom provided 50.2 billion cubic meters to Germany this year, 5.3 billion more than last year, and more gas emissions to the following countries than last year: Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Denmark, Finland and Poland.”
Russia has been accused of not sending large quantities of gas to Europe via Ukraine due to high tensions between Moscow and Kiev, an allegation Moscow has denied.