EU’s move to ditch Russian energy would be suicidal, Russian envoy says

The European Union’s move to ditch Russian energy would be suicidal, Russian Permanent Envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told Rossiya-24.

“I think that ditching Russian energy would be, to some extent, suicidal for European Union countries at this point, while for politicians, it would be a political suicide,” he pointed out.

“Our president’s announcement of a new payment method for gas supplies came as kind of a surprise and shock for them and perplexed both politicians and energy companies, I must say, because what they are talking about now is the practical issue of where to find rubles.

“I think that a payment mechanism will be clarified in the coming days, it will be made public and they will have a chance to sort things out,” the Russian envoy said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin handed down instructions on March 23 to start charging in rubles for Russian gas supplies to unfriendly countries.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Moscow was working on the details of ruble payments for gas supplies and if Europe refused to pay in the Russian currency, Moscow would not supply gas for free.

TASS