MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States and other alternative energy suppliers stand to benefit the most from the recent sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines.
"It is clear who benefits [from the sabotage]: <...> the remaining gas systems will now play a more important geopolitical role. These are Polish routes, the Yamal-Europe [link], and there are two pipelines in Ukraine - Russia once paid to build all those. And of course the US will now be able to sell energy at higher prices," Putin said at the Russian Energy Week forum.
In the wake of the sabotage, the US will have an opportunity to push more liquified natural gas (LNG), a fuel inferior to Russian pipeline gas due to its higher price, on Europeans, Putin noted.
Also, the situation is fraught with risks of instability, Putin warned. "We saw this recently, when U.S. tankers carrying LNG to Europe turned around midway and changed destinations because LNG suppliers had been offered a better price elsewhere. And the interests of European customers were ignored," the Russian leader concluded.