On Tuesday, October 2, the III International Forum “Russian Energy Week” opened in Moscow. The plenary meeting of the summit, the theme of which was the energy partnership for sustainable development, was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The head of state made a welcoming speech, and also during the discussion answered questions from the moderator of the conversation, NBC News correspondent Cyr Simmons, which related not only to the energy sector.

According to the Russian leader, the current forum brought together a record number of participants - 10.5 thousand, representatives of more than 200 companies from 80 countries. The “Russian Energy Week” will end on Saturday, October 5th.

Russian energy projects in Europe

Vladimir Putin drew attention to the fact that “unscrupulous methods” of the struggle in the energy market are being used against Russia. At the same time, he pointed out that the Russian side maintains a “responsible and business approach” in relations with its European partners, and added that the United States of America has always opposed energy cooperation between Russia and Europe.

“Russia provides stable, uninterrupted gas supplies to the European direction. We continue to implement major infrastructure projects, such as the Turkish Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines ... I emphasize again: these projects are implemented jointly with European companies and are exclusively commercial in nature. I want to emphasize it once again, there is no political motive here, ”the president said.

According to him, the task of these projects is to diversify gas supply routes and move away from transit risks, which will strengthen Europe’s energy security. He also noted that if the Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline had not been implemented, the European continent would have experienced a shortage of energy resources that could not be made up for supplies from the United States.

“That is why the logic of normal business relations prevails over attempts to make energy a hostage of political disagreements. And of course, we have new incentives to develop cooperation with those who do not support such a logic - the logic of unfair competition, ”Putin stated.

Assault on Saudi Aramco facilities

Russia condemns the attacks on two Saudi Aramco refineries in Saudi Arabia, Vladimir Putin said. According to him, this incident entailed serious consequences for the global energy market. At the same time, the Russian leader does not believe that the organizers of the action have achieved their goals.

At the same time, the Russian president urged not to be guided by emotions, but by facts when investigating this attack.

“We are opposed to shifting blame onto Iran, as there is no evidence for this. Yesterday, we also discussed this topic with President Rouhani. His position is that Iran relieves all responsibility for this event. He is not involved in this event, and for him - for Iran - the position of some countries is somewhat strange, which without sufficient reason and without obtaining the results of an international investigation appoint him guilty, ”Putin said.

According to the Russian leader, American intelligence, which "serves the current politics" of the United States, at the moment has not provided any evidence of Tehran’s involvement in this event.

On September 14, Saudi Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia were attacked by drones, resulting in fires in factories. According to the Saudi Minister of Energy, the attack led to a drop in oil supplies by more than 5.7 million barrels per day. The Hussite rebels, one of the parties to the conflict in Yemen, in which the kingdom also takes part, claimed responsibility for the attack. At the same time, Washington, and later Paris, London and Berlin blamed the incident on Iran.

The situation in the United States and relations with trump

Russia has not taken a single destructive step in relation to the United States, Vladimir Putin stated. He also regretted the lack of progress in Russian-American bilateral relations, but expressed the hope that sooner or later Washington would begin to be guided by common sense in this matter.

Speaking about relations with the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, Putin noted that Moscow was embroiled "in internal political squabbles in the United States." According to him, he had “good, business and stable relations” lined up with the head of the White House, but they cannot be called close.

He also recalled that the office of special prosecutor Robert Muller to investigate the alleged “Russian interference” in the 2016 elections did not find any collusion between Moscow and Trump’s team.

“Hiley likes, we already heard that. He did not find any evidence of our collusion with Trump in the old days, but expressed fears that we might do this in the future. It is funny - or it would be funny if it were not so sad. Because everything that we see now in the US domestic political sphere violates Russian-American relations. And, I’m sure, it’s to the detriment of the United States itself, ”Putin said.

The President of Russia also answered with a humor a question from an American correspondent about whether the Kremlin intends to intervene in the upcoming US presidential election in 2020.

“I’ll tell you in secret: yes, we’ll definitely do this to completely cheer you up,” Putin joked.

About Ukraine and Vladimir Zelensky

Another question for Vladimir Putin concerned energy relations between Russia and Ukraine. In September, another round of trilateral gas negotiations took place, in which senior representatives of Moscow, Kiev and the EU took part. As the president noted, the Russian side is ready for a year to extend the existing contract for pumping gas through the territory of Ukraine if it is not possible to conclude a new agreement.

“Ukraine is trying to implement the energy legislation of Europe. And if she can do this before the end of the year ... we will be ready to work within the framework of European law and sign an agreement, transit with Ukraine in accordance with European law. If she cannot do this, which is quite likely - there are domestic Ukrainian legislative and political procedures that Ukrainian partners still need to go through, it will not be very easy to do this, then we are just ready to extend for some time, say, a year, the existing contract for pumping, ”Putin said.

The Russian leader noted that Vladimir Zelensky as president of Ukraine faces “big challenges” because he inherited a “heavy legacy” from his predecessor.

“The level of GDP did not just fall, it collapsed in previous years due to the loss of the Russian market. Some industries of Ukraine almost ceased to exist. Ukraine, when it was part of the Soviet Union with Russia, was a high-tech industrial republic. She has lost the status of an industrialized state, ”the head of state explained.

About Greta Tunberg

Vladimir Putin said that he did not share the common enthusiasm regarding the speech of the 16-year-old eco-activist from Sweden Greta Tunberg at the UN climate summit, during which she accused world leaders of lying and "theft of childhood."

According to him, it is correct that young people “pay attention to the acute problems” of our time, including in the field of ecology.

“But when someone takes advantage of children and adolescents, it is only worthy of condemnation. It is especially bad if someone else is trying to make money on this. I’m not saying that this is the same case, but we need to carefully monitor this further, ”the Russian leader explained.

The President expressed confidence that Greta is a “kind and sincere girl”. However, in his opinion, adults should protect children from going to extremes, which can destroy their personality.

Dollar and sanctions

Russia has never been faced with the task of moving away from the dollar as a payment instrument, but the situation forces us to "think about how to protect ourselves." This opinion was expressed by the president of the Russian Federation. According to him, the United States through its own actions undermined confidence in its currency.

“The dollar has enjoyed great trust around the world. It was almost the only universal world currency. For some reason, the United States began to use dollar payments as an instrument of political struggle, to introduce restrictions on the use of the dollar. I think this is another very big mistake. With their own hands they began to saw the branch on which they were sitting. So soon they will crash, ”Putin said.

He noted that more and more countries of the world are switching to settlements in national currencies, and between the states of the Eurasian Economic Union 72% of settlements are already carried out in rubles.

The Russian leader also noted that he had never asked anyone to lift sanctions and would not do so in the future.

“Firstly, it is useless. Normalization of relations should be based on the understanding of both sides that normalization of relations is beneficial to both sides, and not because someone has asked for something. Secondly, I hope that there will come a realization that there are no grounds for these sanctions, ”Putin stated.