MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russian presidential special representative and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev has suggested referring to the rise in gas prices in Europe as a "gas rally" of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

"Let’s call this sharpest EU natural gas prices rally in years the ‘Ursula and Kaja Stupid Decisions Gas Rally’," he wrote on his X account, adding that "strategic stupidity of EU bureaucrats has real consequences for Europeans."

The term "rally" is used by investors to describe a sharp rise in the value of assets on the stock market.

Gas prices in Europe earlier on Thursday rose by more than 10% at the opening of trading and exceeded $650 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to data from the London-based ICE exchange. As the Financial Times reported, Europe is facing the threat of a new energy crisis amid rising energy prices and tensions in the Middle East.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in light of the EU’s intention to completely abandon Russian gas, Russia itself may initiate an early withdrawal from the European market and reorient supplies toward more attractive buyers. According to TASS calculations, Russia ranked second after the United States in the value of the European Union’s LNG imports in 2025 with a 16.1% share (16.2% in the total value of LNG and pipeline gas purchases), as well as 14% in terms of supply volumes (12.1% of the total gas supply volume).