Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday that the EU countries would not last even a week without Russian gas.
Medvedev added in statements broadcast today by the Russian news agency Sputnik: “We appreciate the coordination and honesty of our European partners, especially given the fact that, according to the latest data from the International Monetary Fund, Europe will be able to do without our gas for no more than six months. And speaking seriously. It won’t last a week.
Sputnik pointed out that the European Union will ban the import of Russian coal from August, but gas supplies will continue.
While countries such as America, Canada and the UK made decisions to cut oil and gas supplies from Russia, European countries found it difficult to meet their energy needs due to their heavy dependence on Moscow.
Last month, a group of nine university economists called the impact of a total energy ban “manageable”, saying it would only affect Germany’s gross domestic product by 3%.
However, industry leaders warned that the consequences would be more severe, and politicians also dismissed claims that the economic damage would be limited, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz calling those estimates “incorrect” and “irresponsible,” Sputnik reported.
At meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged the European Union to “be careful” about a ban on Russian energy imports, warning of the damage such a move could do to the global economy.
And the Russian special operation in Ukraine continues, the goals of which Moscow has set to eliminate the militarization of Ukraine and Nazi tendencies in this country, as well as to bring to justice all war criminals guilty of “bloody crimes against the civilian population” in the Donbass.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the armed forces are bombing military infrastructure and Ukrainian forces, which do not lay down their arms without affecting the civilian population, the Russian agency reports.
