President Putin explains shock to European economy when refusing to buy Russian energy
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the global energy situation and explained why the refusal to buy raw materials from Moscow has caused a shock to the European economy.
According to RT, in a statement at the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week forum on October 16, President Vladimir Putin said that over the past five years, about 100,000 km of gas distribution networks have been installed in Russia, bringing the country's gasification rate to a record high - 75%.
The Russian President noted that the country is continuing the program of gasification in society. Under this initiative, the state provides free gas to the border regions.
"Over the past four years, almost 1 million households in Russia have gained access to gas through pipelines. We expect this number to increase by another 2 million in the future. The gas pipeline has been connected to 1,393,000 households and almost 989,000 households have been connected," President Putin added.
According to President Putin, the world is currently witnessing a restructuring of energy relations, both for natural reasons and due to "unfair competition" from the West.
"There is an objective reformatting of the supply chain, a shift in energy logistics to the global South - dynamic countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, Latin America... New centers of economic development are emerging, and energy consumption is growing there. But of course, we are also facing an artificial disruption in the energy architecture, caused by the aggressive actions of a group of Western elites," Putin said.
Elaborating on this, President Putin cited the decision of many European countries to refuse to import energy resources from Russia for political reasons. This, in turn, has had a negative impact on the economic and production potential of the EU - where industry is currently in decline, the competitiveness of manufactured products is declining and prices are rising due to more expensive "imported oil and gas".
"According to Eurostat, industrial production in the eurozone in July this year was still 1.2% lower than the level in 2021. Industrial production in Germany, considered the engine of the European economy, also continued to decline. In July this year, the decrease was 6.6% compared to the average level in 2021," President Putin said.
At the same time, President Putin noted that the Russian oil and gas industry is still operating reliably and is planning for the future. He added that domestic energy companies not only reliably supply the domestic market, but also actively develop foreign relations, build new supply and payment channels.
