NOVO-OGARYOVO, October 20. /TASS/. Russian officials are worried about the possible consequences of the crisis impacting Europe's energy market, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with government members on Wednesday.
"What I am worried about and, as far as I understand the Russian government is worried about, is the potential consequences [of the crisis on the energy market], including the measures to support the population proposed by some of our colleagues in Europe," he said, adding that such measures might lead to many problems in various areas.
"Right, people should be supported, of course," Putin contended. Meanwhile, he noted that "some European countries are now planning to make decisions on supporting households." "Where will this lead to in real terms? It won’t lead to people cutting back [energy resources] volumes of consumption, meanwhile there will be a further reduction of industrial consumption, mainly in energy-intensive sectors," the president explained, mentioning the metals industry and the production of ammonia fertilizers among them.
"But this will have its own further consequences that will affect people, and prices for other goods will eventually increase," he noted. "This way of supporting citizens, which is projected (in European countries), is plain to see, but ultimately, we will witness that those are most likely decisions prompted by the current domestic political environment, meaning particularly the pre-election situations in certain European countries," Putin explained.
"But it will eventually affect the people anyways. If the metal industry consumes less [energy resources] prices for those goods will rise, pushing prices in the whole chain further up," the Russian head of state said. "Just like [prices] on the food markets will climb, food [prices] will rise in the event of a deficit and underinvestment in appropriate fertilizers that are produced using natural gas," he concluded.