ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Russia can’t be blamed for rising gas prices in Europe as it had offered long-term contracts where prices were 20% of the spot-market level.

"Is it we that raise the prices? It’s the market," Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He said the market was impacted by the erroneous decision by European countries to shift to gas purchases in the spot market.

"Go ahead, please. Buy at 1,500 euros for 1,000 cubic meters," he said. "We sell at one-fifth of that price, effectively subsidizing the European economy."

Long-term contracts, Putin said, enable producers to invest in extraction while buyers gain confidence they will get resources at market prices that are tied to a basket of oil and oil product prices.

Gas price in Europe topped $2,000 per 1,000 cubic meters on December 21, 2021, for the first time ever amid prospects of a cold snap and unusually low inventories in Europe. The price reached almost $3,900 per 1,000 cubic meters on March 7, 2022. In recent days, it fluctuated from $1000-$1300 per 1,000 cubic meters. Natural gas futures on key exchanges are highly volatile and don’t reflect the actual price of supplies to Europe. Gazprom’s average price of exports under long-term contracts totaled about $280 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2021.

About the forum

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum organized by the Roscongress Foundation is running from June 15 to 18. This year’s forum is dubbed ‘New Opportunities in a New World’. The SME Forum, the Creative Business Forum, the Drug Security Forum, the SPIEF Junior Dialogue and SPIEF Sport Week are also going to be part of the SPIEF event. TASS serves as the event’s official photo hosting agency and the information partner.