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Lavrov advises Europeans to ‘listen more often to’ Putin, if it alleviates market crunch

The foreign minister noted that EU leaders stayed mum when the oil and gas prices were in the red

© Alexei Druzhinin/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Speaking at a meeting with members of the Association of European Businesses in Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that Europeans could listen to President Vladimir Putin's speeches more often.

During the meeting one of the participants noted that the markets positively reacted to Putin’s statements on the energy sector's predicament, as Europe saw gas prices retreat 30%.

Responding to this remark, Lavrov said: "Let them listen [to the Russian President’s statements] more often."

The foreign minister also noted that EU leaders stayed mum when the oil and gas prices were in the red. "No one was particularly worried then," he pointed out.

On Wednesday, October 6, at about 12:00 Moscow time, the cost of a November futures contract on the TTF hub in the Netherlands shot up to $1,900 per 1,000 cubic meters setting a new all-time high, but after that peak, it began to rapidly decline. By the close of trading, the TTF index sharply reversed it course, plunging by 33%. At the opening of trading on October 7, the price of gas sank below $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters. High volatility of gas prices on the European market is in particular caused by the low occupancy of underground gas storage facilities before winter.

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