The determination of EU states to rid themselves of their reliance on Russian energy also makes them slow to acknowledge their inevitable dependence on the US, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
By becoming so reliant on energy imports from the US, Brussels is effectively replacing one “addiction” with another, the spokesman said, ironically adding that in the second case “the return is much less.”
“And now, when Europeans are spending billions of euros every day, these billions of dollars are being earned in Washington,” Peskov said in an interview with Russian state broadcaster Rossiya 1.
The EU has been grappling with a severe energy crisis for more than a year. The crunch has been exacerbated by the bloc’s efforts to punish Russia over the Ukraine conflict with sanctions and to decrease its energy reliance on the country, which was formerly its leading natural gas supplier.
The situation worsened dramatically in early July following the first disruption of Russian supplies to a number of EU countries, attributed to turbine maintenance issues due to sanctions. The Nord Stream pipeline was subsequently blown up in September, rendering it inoperable.
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