MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Losses incurred by EU countries due to the rejection of Russian gas have already exceeded 1.3 trillion euro, and such decisions are driving the deindustrialization of Europe, Special Presidential Envoy for economic cooperation with foreign countries and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"We see that these aggressive statements against Russia are also linked to the dire situation in the European economy, which has begun moving away from Russian gas. We estimate Europe’s losses at over 1.3 trillion euro from the attempt to phase out the use of Russian natural gas. The numbers speak for themselves. Russia’s economy grew by 4% last year, while the European Union’s growth was below 1%. As a result, Europe is effectively entering severe stagnation and deindustrialization due to the abandonment of Russian energy resources," Dmitriev said on the sidelines of Russian Energy Week.
The Russian Foreign Ministry told Izvestia earlier that European companies are forced to pay two or three times more for energy than American ones as the authorities of those countries refuse to use Russia's energy resources.