MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. For a long time, Russia's energy resources have been crucial to Europe's social and economic prosperity - however, now they are trying to abandon them, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Russian Energy Week.

"As you are aware, European nations have largely, if not entirely, abandoned their use of our energy resources, which for a considerable amount of time guaranteed the social and economic stability of the European Union. Not entirely, of course, but this was a very important component of their wellbeing," he said.

Putin recalled that the European Union introduced restrictions on banking services, freight, insurance, and also set a price ceiling for Russian oil and gas.

At the same time, according to him, in the first quarter of 2023, real disposable income of the population of the eurozone countries fell by 1.2%, while in Russia the figure increased by 4.4%. "The population's real disposable income in the Q1 2023 in the eurozone decreased by 1.2% against the Q1 of 2022. Let me remind you that in Russia, there was an increase of 4.4% in the same period and an increase of 5.3% in the Q2. This is growth in real disposable income of the Russian population," Putin stated.