The bloc has driven up energy costs and damaged its industries by abandoning Russian gas, the president has said
The EU is burying its own economy by rejecting Russian energy supplies, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
European nations have faced soaring energy costs since imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia and its hydrocarbon exports following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Brussels has pledged to eliminate Russian gas imports entirely by 2027, despite opposition from several member states.
Speaking at the eighth Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin warned that efforts to push Russia out of the global gas market were hurting European industries and households.
“[Europe] is dealing a blow to its own industry and social sector by abandoning Russian energy supplies and tearing up long-term contracts,” he said.
There is a saying in Russia: ‘Don’t dig a pit for someone else, or you might end up there yourself.’ In my view, that is precisely what has happened today in the countries of the European Union.
Putin also accused European nations of hypocrisy over their approach to fossil fuels, arguing that they had built their own prosperity on resources they now discourage developing countries from using.
“The economy of modern Europe was built precisely on coal and hydrocarbons,” he said.
Yet those same countries reopened coal-fired power plants “when they found it more difficult to address their own energy challenges,” Putin added.
European gas prices surged to their highest level since December 2022 on Monday, briefly exceeding €97 ($108) per megawatt-hour as supply disruptions linked to the Iran war and forecasts of colder weather rattled markets, according to Trading Economics.
Germany, Europe’s largest industrial economy, has been particularly hard hit by the loss of Russian gas. The country suffered two consecutive years of economic contraction in 2023 and 2024, while its energy-intensive industries, particularly chemicals and metals, have struggled with higher production costs.
German industry is shedding around 15,000 jobs a month, Tanja Goenner, head of the Federation of German Industries, warned in July, citing structural weaknesses, US tariffs and mounting competition from China.
Economic pressures have also fueled public anger across Europe. Rising living costs, stagnant wages and government policies have triggered protests in France, Belgium, Italy and other countries this month, with demonstrators demanding relief for struggling households.
