President Vladimir V. Putin threatened to cut off remaining gas supplies to Europe as the Iran war drives a surge in energy costs.
Russia has a question for the European countries that have shunned its energy exports: Do you miss us now?
The Kremlin is enjoying a sudden resurgence of its importance as a global supplier of oil and gas, as the conflict in Iran disrupts energy production and shipment across the Middle East and sends global energy prices soaring.
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Mr. Putin spoke with bravado about European nations’ longstanding plans to phase out imports of Russian gas in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, threatening to accelerate the divorce himself as prices spike on the continent.
“Now other markets are opening up, and perhaps it’s more advantageous for us to stop supplying the European market right now,” Mr. Putin said on Wednesday to a state television reporter, Pavel Zarubin, who chronicles the Russian leader.
EU has set a way lower than market price as the maximum to buy from Russia, in that way preventing Russia from profiting from the oil as much as usual. EU has also cut use of Russian gas dramatically at great cost of new infra structure. Unfortunately some countries are not doing their part, especially Hungary and Slovakia, but also Italy has been slow to get off Russian energy. But the block as a whole has done a lot.