The Russian Energy Week itself seems to have ended.
And the price of gas in Europe continues to write out very curious somersaults: for example, at the close of trading on the London ICE exchange on Friday, it dropped to almost $ 1,060 per 1,000 cubic meters.
m after it exceeded $ 1250 in the morning.
And oil is reaching for the records of the past days and $ 100 per barrel, and coal prices renew their own records again and again.
And Putin's speech, made last Wednesday at the plenary session of the forum of that same energy week, still remains central for all self-respecting and not very self-respecting, Russian and Western - and not only specialized - media.
And in this, by the way, there is nothing surprising at all.
The news coming from the European energy markets is really getting more and more alarming. And the point here, of course, is not even the fact that spot gas prices again demonstrate some kind of frantic volatility, this is even customary. There is news and much more formidable: as evidenced by the data of the Gas Infrastructure Europe platform, European operators - understandably, not from a very good life - began the season of active pumping of gas from their underground storage facilities ahead of schedule. And this, against the background of so completely and not fully filled UGS facilities, looks in anticipation of the coming cold winter as a phenomenon of a much more serious order than any exchange fluctuations.
And that is precisely why the discussion around the last "energy" speech of the Russian leader is still going on, which in itself is surprising for the current clip thinking on the world economic agenda.
And apparently, it is not even going to end.
No matter how anyone in these very “western and not so” media treats both Vladimir Putin personally and the country he represents, in general, they all, in my opinion, have a consensus: in the world energy, Putin decides in general all.
Meanwhile, the whole point of the Russian president's speech was mostly boiled down to the fact that this was not entirely true.
And the processes taking place in global markets are not the result of someone's malicious actions, by no means.
It is rather the result of systemic errors of the Western - primarily political - elites themselves.
And the funny thing is that now, judging by the more than transparent hints of Vladimir Vladimirovich, and all together, because it will not work in another way, we will have to rake this, excuse me, substance.
However, let's go in order.
Speaking last Wednesday at the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week forum, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, of course, could not help but draw the attention of the audience to the energy crisis unfolding in the Old Continent and the surrounding lands, which is rapidly unfolding before our eyes. First, because it concerns us directly and directly. At least as the leading suppliers of energy raw materials, at least in this region. And secondly, turbulence, which began for an unprepared outside observer as a rather local, almost shtetl and - we repeat - quite, if you like, an ideological process ("democratic" Western elites against the "totalitarian" Russian gas), is already acquiring features of quite itself a full-fledged energy crisis.
Which - again directly in front of our eyes - already quite specifically threatens to cross the rather conventional in this particular case "energy boundaries" and develop, in turn, into the same global economic crisis that we have been predicted for so long.
And then "by a mighty economic hurricane", as the classics of Soviet satire wrote, "everything will be taken into account."
Including the potential loss of jobs and prices in stores, including in our country.
In stores, both grocery and - especially!
- non-food mass market.
So, to think that this, thank God, will not affect us, can only be a completely virgin person.
And I would definitely not call Vladimir Putin as such.
Alas, this is, unfortunately, pure mathematics.
If our energy sector (fortunately, as it turns out, for us), no matter what the home-grown "globalists" may say, has not yet become completely global (so far we have tied only oil prices to world prices, which is why, by the way, in the country constant "gasoline crises"), then retail, wholesale and retail trade, especially the network, have been "global" for quite some time.
Or directly, through the owners.
Or indirectly, through the reorientation of even entirely Russian products to "world prices."
I think no one needs to remind how the same Putin reduced the prices for vegetable oil, the growth of which in the Russian retail was not justified by anything at all, except for "the growth of the correct price on world markets."
Not so much time has passed.
Therefore, the Russian president, of course, simply could not just pass by this, to put it mildly, burning topic, and even within the framework of the energy week.
And he didn’t get off with the usual phrases either.
Immediately drawing attention to the key distortion of reality by our, Lord, forgive me, numerous "Western partners": it was the rise in gas prices that was the result of a shortage of electricity.
And not, excuse me, on the contrary.
And "there is no need, as they say, to shift from a sore head to a healthy one, as we say and how some of our partners are trying to do," the Russian president stated.
Adding another - as they say, between the lines - about replacing the analysis of the situation on the European energy market with empty political slogans.
And it was not just a remark and, as they say, thoughts out loud.
A rather specific and by no means only economic, but also quite a political statement.
Everything is quite simple here.
It is extremely naive even to assume that the price rally in the European spot markets is a consequence of an exclusively political fuss around the Ukrainian GTS and the recently completed in iron, but so far still being certified, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The history of energy deficit in Europe was formed for a rather long period of time and quite progressively, through the gradual “cutting out” of nuclear and coal generation from the continental energy markets. And with the subsequent replacement of these capacities by not the same gas. Whether it's own production, even Russian, even Norwegian, even Algerian or even American LNG - but at least, forgive, let, for example, Martian, for additional purity of the experiment. And the bubble of green energy is obviously inflated at this point in time - financial in the first place.Which at the current technological cycle, obviously, unfortunately, is simply technically unable to cope with the generation of capacities necessary for the economy.
Actually, this is what Vladimir Putin mainly spoke about in his speech.
Moreover, in plain text, we will be happy to quote - and not only because this is our president.
And because we ourselves do not just think so, but we have written a lot about this in recent months here, on the pages of RT.
“Over the past decade, step by step, systemic flaws have been laid in European energy.
It was they who led to a large-scale market crisis in Europe, ”the Russian president said.
At the same time, separately, to our delight, noting that while the leading positions on the Old Continent were occupied by nuclear and gas generation, there were no such crises.
Why is it important?
The impending crisis in the global economy, apparently, is still inevitable.
And it is very important for us to determine as accurately as possible in relation to the ongoing processes, somewhere taking the most active part in the crisis and post-crisis reformatting of markets.
And somewhere - to the utmost distance from these processes.
Yes, Russia (somewhere and not of its own free will, by the way) found itself in an advantageous position.
And as a supplier, not a consumer of energy raw materials.
And as a relatively sovereign economy - and there is a certain irony in the fact that we were literally pushed into this “sovereignty” by their sanctions by those who are now falling into the formidable funnel of a systemic economic crisis.
But at the same time it is important to remember that now is the time not for victorious reports, but for difficult and balanced decisions.
Just as an example: it is extremely important for us to have the most painless passage of the crisis by the European North-West (German) industrial cluster.
For a trivial reason, this is the leading buyer of our energy raw materials.
Including, by the way, the very gas around which there is fuss.
By the way, normal market interdependence of the buyer and the seller.
And that is why the correct arrangement of accents and priorities is so important here, which does not allow any double interpretations - which, in fact, was what the Russian president was doing during the Russian Energy Week.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.