ST. PETERSBURG, June 20. /TASS/. The European economy has already incurred losses totaling 1.3 trillion euro as a result of the reduction in Russian gas supplies, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation Kirill Dmitriev told TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
"The current losses the EU has sustained due to the reduction in Russian gas supplies reaches already 1.3 trillion euro," he said.
In May 2022, the European Union launched the REPowerEU initiative aimed at eliminating dependency on Russian gas by 2027. However, over the past three years, the cost of Russian LNG purchases by the EU has increased nearly 4.6 times, driven by price growth. Before 2022, Russian gas accounted for 40% of the EU’s total gas imports. By 2023, that share had dropped to approximately 15%, but in 2024 it began rising again, reaching nearly 19%, a development that drew criticism from Brussels.
In the first four months of 2025, the European Union purchased around 5.4 bln euro worth of gas from Russia, a 17% increase compared to the same period in 2024. LNG imports from Russia during this time amounted to 3.3 bln euro, up from 2.5 bln euro a year earlier. For pipeline gas, the EU paid 2.1 bln euro, compared to 2.2 bln euro in 2024. Overall, from January through April 2025, Russia’s share in the EU’s gas imports stood at 16.5%, making it the bloc’s second-largest supplier after the United States.