MOSCOW, September 20. /TASS/. Unlike Europe, Russia always fulfills its obligations under agreements and will not "shoot itself in the foot" by halting gas supplies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Sky News Arabia.

When asked why Russia has not stopped gas exports to the EU, despite all the negativity coming from that side, Lavrov said: "We are decent people. We have concluded long-term agreements with Europe. We always fulfill our obligations, unlike Europe and the United States."

"Currently, Europe meets its basic needs through liquefied natural gas, including American gas. But if someone wants to buy gas from us, we never back down from our agreements. We are neighbors. We have a pipeline system. Despite the fact that three 'strings' of 'Nord Streams' were blown up, the pipeline system remains, including through Ukraine, through Turkey, through the Black Sea. If it is mutually beneficial, why 'shoot yourself in the foot'? Let Beauty Europe 'shoot' itself in the foot," the Russian top diplomat noted.

According to Lavrov, for many decades, since the times of the Soviet Union, since the 1970s, Moscow has been establishing mutually beneficial cooperation in gas supplies.

"The European, especially German, energy industry and the economy as a whole lived off this affordable and reliable source of gas supply. Chancellor [of Germany] Olaf Scholz said in an interview that Russia itself had stopped gas supplies to Europe. He is a grown-up man. Why lie? Everyone knows how it all happened. Even under Chancellor Angela Merkel, the US forced Germany not to turn on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines and to use more expensive (much more expensive) American liquefied natural gas," he stressed.