MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. The world is facing a shortage of energy in 5-10 years because Western oil and gas companies are underinvesting, instead diverting money to dividends, as they respond to moves by their governments, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview.

"Many Western oil and gas companies are already wary of all these processes and divert funds to dividends instead of investing. In the future, what will happen is that, as a result of a decrease in the volume of investments, the EU won’t have enough energy resources and the world will face a shortage and a new round of the crisis," he told TASS.

"Within 5-10 years, the world will face serious problems. Most of all, this will affect Europe," he said.

Novak said Western countries, by introducing new sanctions and taking measures to regulate markets, aren’t guided by economic common sense, but only play nice to their voters.

"They receive short-term benefits, but only political ones, not economic. If we talk about long-term prospects, then with such decisions they provoke a deep long-term crisis, a destabilization in Europe," he said.