Vladimir Putin: "...there is no real investigation..."
22 Dec 2022 - Vladimir Putin answered questions from journalists
Vladimir Putin: "...This sector (natural gas) already lacks investment. There are problems related to the fact that money is not invested in new projects such as pipelines, production and development due to environmental concerns and the transition to renewable energy sources. Banks do not loan money, and insurance companies refuse to issue policies. Large global companies have stopped investing in the volume the global energy sector needs.
And now they are trying to administratively set a price cap. This is the road toward destroying the global energy sector. The moment might come when the underinvested sector stops providing the necessary volume of products and the prices will soar and hurt those who are trying to introduce these instruments..."
...Therefore, energy producers, oil producers in this case, take it personally, referring to themselves, not Russia, but themselves because everyone believes that this is the first attempt to dictate administrative rules of price regulation to producers, and more will follow...
Alexei Lazurenko: Alexei Lazurenko, Izvestia.
I would like to follow up on the same subject.
Similar decisions to cap gas prices were adopted several days ago. What will we do in this context? How big of a threat is this for us, and what will be the future of the Nord Stream pipelines?
Vladimir Putin: This initiative follows the same pattern, as far as I can tell. Once again, we are witnessing an attempt to use administrative leverage to regulate prices. Nothing good can come out of this for gas or oil markets.
Overall, sometimes our colleagues and partners really surprise me by how unprofessional they are. There was a time when it was the European Commission which forced us to switch to market pricing and to setting the price of natural gas on the commodity exchange. We, in turn, and I personally, tried to persuade Brussels not to do it, saying that this is not how the gas market works and would have grave consequences, resulting in surging prices. This is exactly what is happening right now. Now they do not know how to get out of this situation and are trying to regulate the price of gas too.
However, there is a slight difference compared to the way they try regulating oil prices. This time, the European Commission is focusing on regulating commodity exchanges. They are pegging gas prices to LNG, saying that gas prices must correlate with LNG pricing, etc. Still, this is an attempt to use administrative methods for regulating prices.
You know, they do not listen to us, they do not want to deal with us, they do not like us and want to counter us. Fine, but what about listening to themselves? I am referring to those trying to regulate gas prices in Europe. They always take their cues from the Americans, bowing and humiliating themselves every time they are ordered to do something. This time, there were no orders, but they could have listened to what the US experts are saying. Take Friedman, a prominent economist and Nobel Prize winner. He said that if you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, just cap the price of tomatoes. Instantly you'll have a tomato shortage. They are doing the same with oil and gas – exactly the same. For some reason, no one is listening.
We have been keeping a close eye on these developments, watching them. If the system they propose tilts towards administrative regulation and runs counter to Gazprom’s contracts with its counterparts, or if there is any interference in these contracts, we reserve the right to consider whether we have an obligation to perform these contracts while the other party infringes on them.
As for the Nord Streams…. What can I say? This was a terrorist attack, which is obvious, and everyone has recognised this. Even more surprising is that it is an act of international, or should I say state terrorism. Why? Because individuals cannot carry out terror attacks of this kind on their own. States were clearly involved in perpetrating them.
As they say in such cases: look for who will benefit. Who will benefit from Russian gas being supplied to Europe only through Ukraine, who will benefit from Ukraine receiving the money?
[MRT: Putin hints to a scheme by a 3rd country in which Russian gas is on purpose funneled only through Ukraine which gets the transport fees.]
The aggressor is Russia, but they receive money from us for transit, and we are paying them, though they call us aggressors, and though they are aggressors in relation to Donbass, too. We are countering aggression, not the other way around. They take money and that is alright. Money is money.
Who benefits from Russian gas being supplied to Europe only through Ukraine? That is who blew it up. Nobody is investigating. We had an opportunity just once to inspect the sites of explosions. All this was in the media, there is nothing to repeat, as I am sure you already know this. But there is no real investigation, no one is investigating. It is astonishing but true.
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