(KPL/Prensa Latina) Russian natural gas represents 15 percent of the total volume imported by the European Union, said the director of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Foreign Ministry, Dmitri Birichevski. 

Contrary to the REPowerEU plan approved by the bloc in May 2022 to end dependence on fossil fuels of Russian origin and encourage energy savings, statistics show that gas imports are growing, the diplomat highlighted to the Sputnik agency.

In the first half of this year, the EU imported more natural gas from Russia than in the period from January to June 2023, Birichevski said.

The official separately mentioned the case of France, whose imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia skyrocketed from about two billion cubic meters in the first quarter of 2023 to about 4.4 billion a year later.

Birichevski added that a considerable part of that volume is goes to re-export.

The fourteenth package of sanctions against Russia approved by the EU at the end of June 2024 prohibits, especially, the transshipment of LNG of Russian origin in European ports, as well as technological assistance, providing services and new investments in product projects.

According to the Castellum.AI database, more than 19,500 individual and sectoral sanctions have been activated against Russia since the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine on February 24th, 2022.

President Vladimir Putin assures that the containment policy against Russia is part of the West’s long-term strategy and that the sanctions represent a strong blow to the world economy.

KPL