Expert reveals how European countries can solve problem of Russian gas

WORLD, Aug. 03 (YPA) – Economist Yevgeny Smirnov said European countries that “reject” Russian gas purchases in rubles could survive economically only by re-pumping it from its more pragmatic neighbors.

 Smirnov, who works as a professor in the Department of Global Economy and International Economic Relations at the Russian State University of Management, said Poland, for example, refused to buy gas from Russia in rubles but bought the same gas from Germany at a higher price. The same also done by Bulgaria by purchasing Russian gas from Greece.

The expert pointed out that industrial enterprises in those countries in particular suffer from the problems of gas shortages and high prices, which causes a significant burden on the economic growth of these countries, since third-party gas access is always more expensive.

According to the expert, this method allows countries that buy Russian gas in rubles to make an additional profit at the expense of re-pumping gas to their neighbours. In this way partially compensates for their losses from the continued rise in gas prices in the market.

He noted that gas pumping to the European Union was currently unstable and “re-pumping” to neighbours could stop at any moment, putting the economies of countries such as Bulgaria in a state of extreme uncertainty.

E.M