SAMARKAND, September 16. /TASS/. By accusing Russia of the energy crisis in Europe the Western politicians are trying to shift the blame on someone else and to protect themselves from the indignation of their citizens, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Friday.
"This is another attempt to shift a problem or a headache from a sick head to a healthy one. That's what it is. This is how our people [in Russia] call it. The energy crisis in Europe did not begin with the start of a special military operation, but much earlier," he said.
Putin added that such accusations are necessary for the EU "to provide itself with protection from the indignant citizens of their countries."
He noted that gas supplies from Russia to Europe were affected by Poland's sanctions and Ukraine's closure of gas pumping along one string through its territory.
"Gazprom does not supply gas. Listen, are you sane people or not? Poland sanctioned the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, closed the route. I told Mr. [German Chancellor] Scholz: "Why are you calling me? Call Warsaw and ask them to open the route. That's all," Putin said.
"Second. There are two strings of the gas pipeline through the territory of Ukraine. They supply Ukraine with weapons, while it [Ukraine] closed one of the routes for them. The whole route was closed. Why? Call Kiev, let them open the second route," he continued.
Putin also pointed to the EU's inaccurate approach to the green agenda as one of the reasons for the current crisis. Another reason, in his opinion, is that Europe has begun to include the level of spot prices in the formula of contracts for gas from Russia.
"It started (the energy crisis - TASS) with the green agenda. The green agenda is needed, of course, you need to take care of the climate and prevent the point of no return, when the climate begins to change in such a way that it will be impossible to stop," he said.
"But everything needs to be done carefully, gradually, in stages. In order to achieve a momentary political situation, they decided to curtail hydrocarbon energy. Completely! Banks stopped giving loans, local authorities stopped allocating land for future developments, stopped implementing construction plans, and investments in energy decreased. But all this began to happen a few years ago," the President stressed.