Key points of the interview of V.Omelchenko, the Director of the Razumkov Centre’s Energy Programmes, to the Belsat TV channel on 31 March 2022.

Russia is trying to undermine European unity on sanctions against it by using Europe’s significant energy dependence on Russian energy, which currently accounts for about 40 percent of total gas imports and more than 30 percent of oil and petroleum products imports.

Some EU countries are critically dependent on Russian fuel imports.

The Russian President instructed Gazprom to develop proposals by 30 March to force European companies to pay for gas in Russian roubles.

However, the G7 leaders and a number of EU countries flatly rejected this proposal, as all gas contracts provide for payments in euros.

After the war was waged in Ukraine, everyone could clearly see the collapse of the energy policy of the leaders of the EU countries, which consisted in increasing dependence on Russian energy for the last 20 years. Therefore, it is impossible to promptly address this problem.