MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Russia will allow companies from friendly countries to join its oil and gas projects, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"We will allow our friends and partners to join," the president said at a plenary session of the Valdai international discussion club. "Why not? Just like we did with the Europeans, with the Americans. But they prefer to leave our market."

"Let them go any way they want. Is that good for them? I think, it’s in fact bad. They suffer losses as they leave. Whoever wants to, let him come in. We are open for cooperation. And this process will continue, whether we are ready for it or not. But we have been preparing for this for a long time, for many years, and we will continue this process further. I don’t see any insurmountable obstacles here and no issues that we would not be able to solve. Everything will be solved," the president said.

Shell earlier said it wouldn’t take a stake in the new operator of the Sakhalin 2 project while Exxon said it completely left Russia after a new operator had been set up for the Sakhalin 1 project. TotalEnergies said in March it would wind down its operations in Russia.