Putin: ‘We can’t cut off Russian energy’… Show confidence in sanctions

President Vladimir Putin has assured that Europe and the West will not cut off Russian energy for years.

According to the BBC, Putin met with young businesspeople ahead of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum held in Moscow on the 9th (local time) and argued that “the West will not be able to cut off Russian oil and gas on its own for years”.

He said that the EU’s decision to cut its dependence on Russian oil by 90% by the end of the year would not be badly affected. In fact, the EU has not reached a concrete agreement on gas from Russia, which is currently about 40% dependent.

“At that time, no one knows what will happen,” Putin said. He also explained the current situation, “The amount of crude oil in the global market is decreasing.

In fact, despite the Western embargo on Russian energy, global oil and gas prices have soared. The United States also admits that Russia’s energy gains are higher than it was before the war.

Putin also expressed confidence that he would overcome the wide range of economic sanctions from the West through cooperation with other trading partners. “Russia has never and will never have a closed economy,” he said. “Our economy will always be open.” “We cannot blockade a country like Russia,” he said, arguing that the West wants Russia to collapse, which is more like a declaration of economic war.

Putin mentioned the former Soviet Union’s ‘iron curtain’ and emphasized that Russia would never be isolated from the international community. The ‘Iron Curtain’ is the closed economy of the former Soviet Union after World War II, and it is evaluated that it was one of the causes of its collapse. He said, “In the former Soviet Union, we built a so-called ‘iron curtain’ and cut ourselves off,” he said. “We will not repeat the same mistake.”