Russian president Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that Russia would stop all energy exports to the West if Europe goes against its standing contracts and caps prices of Russian exports due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
If Europe decides to go against the contracts, Russia “won’t supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil,” Putin said, while speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum.
“We will fulfill our contractual obligations in full. But if somebody tries to impose something on us, then, I want to stress this, those who impose something on us are not in a position today to dictate their will to us,” Putin added.
Putin also spoke about the impact of the Russia–Ukraine war, claiming that Russia has “not lost anything and will not lose anything” and that the war has “strengthened” Russia’s sovereignty.
The European Commission is planning on proposing a price cap on Russian gas, to stop the finances Putin “uses to finance this atrocious war in Ukraine,” President of the commission, Ursula von Der Leyen said Wednesday.
She also said there is a “global scarcity of energy” and member states will have to agree to limit “electricity use in peak hours.”
On Friday, the G-7 countries — the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.K. — also agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil due to its war in Ukraine.
The finance ministers of each county stated, “The initial price cap will be set at a level based on a range of technical inputs and will be decided by the full coalition in advance of implementation in each jurisdiction.”
On Friday, Russia has spared with Germany over halting energy exports via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, blaming technical difficulties of Gazprom. Energy prices soared throughout Europe as a result and there were warnings of blackouts and rationing.
Germany pledged in April to stop all Russian oil imports by the end of the year, and also lower its reliance on Russian gas, after previously importing 40 percent of its gas from Russia.
“We will halve oil by the summer and will be at zero by the end of the year, and then gas will follow, in a joint European roadmap, because our joint exit, the complete exit of the European Union, is our common strength,” German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said.