“Along with the pandemic, the crisis phenomena in the regional energy markets have once again shown how critical the stable, confident work of the energy sector is for the modern world,” Putin said.
He stressed the need to supply consumers with affordable energy.
“The stability of the global energy markets directly depends on the responsible actions of all its participants, both producers and consumers, based on taking into account the long-term interests of each of the parties,” the Russian leader said.
According to him, Russia is in favor of a thorough discussion of this issue "in a pragmatic manner, guided solely by economic considerations."
Earlier, the secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that the European energy crisis showed that industrialized Europe was unable to “overnight” replace traditional energy sources with wind, solar, tidal and geothermal power plants.
Amos Hochstein, spokesman for the US State Department for Energy Security, said earlier that Russia did not provoke a gas crisis in Europe.
According to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, the European Union is aware that Russia is using gas for cooperation on mutually beneficial terms, and not for blackmail.