MOSCOW, April 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia does not use its gas supplies as a weapon, says Reiner Hartmann, the chairman of the Association of European Businesses, head of the Moscow Representative Office for Dusseldorf-based E.ON Global Commodities SE (EGC), one of the leading participants in international wholesale energy markets.

“Over the last forty years, Russia has never failed to perform its contractual obligations, not for a single cubic meter,” Hartmann said. “And also for the last forty years, Russia has never used gas as a weapon or an instrument in legal disputes. We believe this will go on that way.”

Hartmann noted that South Stream project plans to pipe gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then ashore for onward transit to Greece, Italy and Austria were still current.

“Investors who are ready to put up their capital in this project should certainly do it,” he said.