Russian President Vladimir Putin blames the Europeans for the currently steep rise in gas prices.

"You made mistakes," Putin said in a televised debate with representatives of the Russian energy authorities on Wednesday.

Recently, there have been allegations that Russia is deliberately withholding gas supplies in order to put pressure on the West.

German authorities have not yet received certification for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to go into operation.

One of the reasons why prices are currently rising sharply is the termination of “long-term contracts” by Europeans in favor of trading on commodity exchanges.

"It turned out, and today it is very obvious, that this is a wrong policy," Putin said.

A spokesman for Putin previously rejected the allegations of an artificial shortage of gas supplies through Russia.

"Russia has fulfilled all of its obligations under current treaties, is fulfilling them now and will continue to do so," said the spokesman.

"Only non-professionals, people who do not understand the nature of what is going on, can mention Russia here in this context."

Gazprom is counting on cold winters

The confidante of President Vladimir Putin rather pointed out that a number of factors come together in the EU that have an impact on energy prices. On the one hand, the energy demand is high again after the end of the restrictions in the corona pandemic, and the economy is picking up speed, said Peskow. On the other hand, the EU is relying on renewable energies, which, as in the case of wind energy, are unpredictable. Wind turbines, for example, would not have delivered the expected performance in the end.

The state-owned company Gazprom recently pointed out that it was expecting a snowy and cold winter that would be good for business.

Gazprom and the Kremlin had also stated that rapid commissioning of the completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline could help to counter the “energy crisis” in Europe and ease the situation on the gas market.

Gazprom is ready to sign new long-term contracts with customers.

Russia repeatedly warns against relying too much on renewable energies.

In the gas and oil superpower, the share of renewable energies is just one percent.

EU environment ministers defend climate targets

The prices on European gas markets rose by leaps and bounds on Wednesday, and reached new record levels on the European and British reference markets. The trading prices at the TTF, a virtual trading point in the Dutch gas network, rose by 25.14 percent to 145.19 euros per megawatt hour on Wednesday afternoon. The price of a so-called therm, a unit of heat used in the UK, rose 25.13 percent to 367.78 pence. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), gas storage facilities in Germany are currently 69.3 percent full. Inventories across Europe are currently at 75.87 percent.

Meanwhile, environment ministers from several EU countries have defended the common climate targets as a solution to the steep rise in energy prices. "Renewable energies and the courageous expansion of these energies make us less dependent on imports of fossil fuels and are therefore the solution to the problem," said Environment Minister Svenja Schulze before a ministerial meeting in Luxembourg. “We don't want anyone to use this situation to endanger our great commitment to the transition to renewable energies and the decarbonisation of our economy. On the contrary, ”said the Spanish Environment Minister Teresa Ribero.

EU Environment Commissioner Frans Timmermans said the emissions trading system is only involved “to a very small extent” in the current rise in energy prices, up to a fifth at most. Rather, it is based on an unusually strong demand for energy after the pandemic. "The faster we increase our renewable energy sources, the faster we can protect our citizens from price increases in the traditional energy sector," said Timmermans.

Ribero stressed that short-term measures were needed to protect consumers from the rise in prices.

"We in Spain and also in other Member States believe that what we have is not enough, because exceptional situations need exceptional solutions," said the Spanish minister.

Spain, together with France, Greece, the Czech Republic and Romania, presented a paper on Tuesday calling for European measures.

Among other things, the states want to coordinate gas purchases and decouple the price of electricity and gas.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed on Tuesday that these proposals would be discussed at a summit on October 21 and 22