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Putin blames growing oil prices on West’s systemic errors in energy sphere

The United States is taking oil from its strategic reserves, but they will certainly have to replenish them later, and market experts understand it, Russian President said

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Causes of the current spike in oil prices worldwide lie in systemic mistakes in the energy sphere, committed by Western nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion club on Thursday.

"This crisis was caused by systemic measures that restricted the development of traditional fuels," he said. "A serious lack of funding in the sector resulted in a deficit, that’s all."

"The United States is taking oil from its strategic reserves, but they will certainly have to replenish them later, and market experts understand it. Tomorrow, they will have to compensate for everything that is now being taken from the strategic reserves. They say: ‘We will buy later, when prices are low.’ But prices are still far from falling, and so they have to buy [oil] at a high price," Putin continued.

"But what have we to do with that? Those are systemic errors in the energy sphere, committed by those who were supposed to think about those issues and do something about them," he added.