ST. PETERSBURG, October 10. /TASS/. Industrial production in European countries fell to a 10-year low in a year and a half without Russian gas supplies, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said in his speech at the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.

"This policy has led to the fact that in some industries over the past year and a half, production has fallen by almost 10%. These industries have reached ten-year production lows. In some industries, the cost of production has increased by 25% over a year and a half," Miller said.

He noted that with the reduction in gas supplies to the European market, "someone has to be the scapegoat, someone has to suffer."

"The European Union could not come up with anything better, apparently they chose their own industry as the scapegoat," he said.

As Gazprom CEO noted, the refusal to supply Russian gas hits the "backbone" of the European economy: the chemical industry, steel, cement and a dozen other industries.

Miller also said that an important factor for Europe is the volatility of gas prices and, as a result, the rapid growth of energy tariffs.

"The volatility of gas prices and high energy tariffs lead to the fact that it is impossible to control costs in the near, medium and especially long term," Miller stressed.

"It turns out that industrial enterprises in the European Union have found themselves in a situation where some have simply closed down, and, for example, half of the enterprises in Germany - just think about it - are considering the possibility of transferring their production to third countries or reducing production. Meanwhile 20% of enterprises have completely stopped funding R&D. But without funding R&D, there are no new technologies," Gazprom CEO concluded.