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EU would prefer to starve and not buy Russian gas, if it were question of morality — Putin

The Russian leader doubted that the European countries’ statements, in particular, those about stopping Nord Streams and switching to fuel purchases from the United States, were related to some "moral choice"

MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. The European countries would stop importing gas from Russia by any routes, if they really considered it a question of morality whether to purchase Russian energy resources or not, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week.

He doubted that the European countries’ statements, in particular, those about stopping Nord Streams and switching to fuel purchases from the United States, were related to some "moral choice."

"If there were some moral choice considerations involved, they should have said: 'We will not take anything through TurkStream, we will not take anything through the territory of Ukraine.' Well, then one might assume that everything was cut off: ‘No, we will not take anything from Russia. We will prefer to starve, but we will not let Russia earn a single euro.’ But they do take it via other routes - then why don't they take it here?" Putin wondered.

The European politicians who made some loud statements "probably uttered a blunder once only to realize the next moment that what they said was bad, but there was already no chance of backtracking," Putin speculated. "That’s nonsense."

Putin recommended asking Europe's politicians themselves about the reasons why such a decision had been made.

"I don't know. Go and ask the chancellor, the economics minister, or the foreign minister or some other major political figure of our time. They are in the know," Putin concluded ironically.