Putin: European energy demands 'unfair'

Russian President Vladimir Putin today said European demands for access to Russian energy assets were unfair.

“We assess that as a way to force us to make unilateral steps to satisfy our partners but not fully taking into account Russian economic interests,” Putin said, adding that Russia should get a share in European energy assets in return.

“There will be no unilateral moves.”

Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant has complete control of gas exports and so faces no competition from independent producers.

The EU has pressured Russia to offer European companies broader access to gas fields and export pipelines to reduce Gazprom’s ability to charge monopolist rents on gas transported from Russia and the former Soviet Union.

An April deal between Gazprom and Germany’s BASF, under which the latter got a share in a Russian gas field in exchange for giving the Russians a share in its gas distribution network, was a good example for the future, he said.

“This is a very good example of cooperation, which takes it to a new level of trust,” Putin told a group of foreign media executives at his residence outside Moscow.

Putin blamed Ukraine for a brief suspension of Russian energy supplies to the West in January, which shocked the Europeans and encouraged them to search for alternative supply routes.

“Our friends (in the West) actively supported the Orange events in Ukraine,” Putin said in a reference to the 2004 Orange Revolution that paved the way for the victory of Western-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

“If you want to further support developments there, you pay for that,” he said, the colour rising in his face.

He said Russia had been spending between €2bn and €6bn a year to subsidise cheap gas supplies for Ukraine and no longer is willing to do that.

The New Year’s shutdown, which was followed by gas shortages during a harsh winter, came as Russia declared energy security to be a top priority of its leadership this year of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations.