MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. Rising energy prices can irrevocably undermine the competitiveness of much of Europe's industries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said speaking at a meeting on the development of the oil industry.
"Abandoning Russian energy resources means that Europe systematically, in the long term, becomes the region with the highest cost of energy resources in the world," he said.
"This in the most serious way, and according to some experts - irrevocably, can undermine the competitiveness of a significant part of European industry, which is losing competition to companies from other regions of the world," Putin added.
From now, these processes will be only speeding up, the Russian leader believes. He called the EU policy in energy sector "economic suicide".
"Obviously, together with Russian energy resources Europe will lose the possibility of increasing economic activity. Such an economic auto-da-fe, suicide is, of course, an internal affair of European countries," Putin said.
"We should act pragmatically, proceeding from our own economic interest first of all," Putin added.