The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key channel for global oil and natural gas exports, is an attempt to change global energy market regulation in the interest of the United States, Igor Sechin, head of Russia's largest oil producer "Rosneft", said, Reuters reported.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sechin, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also said that the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers had lost some of its potential with the withdrawal of the United Arab Emirates from the alliance.
Sechin also drew attention to the fact that over the past 11 years, global military spending has been steadily increasing, while investment in industrial production and energy are declining, TASS reported.
"US defense spending, which today accounts for a third of global spending, has increased by 50% over the past ten years and last year reached almost $1 trillion. By 2027, spending should increase by another 50%,“ Sechin noted.
The spending of European NATO members is growing at the highest rate since 1953; last year alone it increased by almost a quarter and exceeded $0.5 trillion. Overall, global military spending has been steadily increasing over the past 11 years.
According to Sechin, Germany stands out in Europe, whose military spending has doubled over the past three years.
Global militarization is taking place at the expense of cutting investment in industrial production, Sechin stressed. Underfunding of fossil fuel extraction and processing is part of this trend, which has been reinforced by the illusions of an accelerated energy transition and ignoring energy security issues. According to the International Energy Agency, over the past 10 years, investment in fossil fuels has decreased by more than 20%. Most of this decrease has fallen on the oil sector, where capital expenditures have fallen by 35%.
The head of "Rosneft" also noted in his speech that the explosive growth in the capitalization of technology companies is leading to the largest "bubble" in the financial market since the US railroad boom in the 19th century. American funds BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are counting on becoming beneficiaries of the crisis.
Sechin's report was called "The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning: What Remains at the Bottom of Pandora's Box?"
"In the US stock market over the past ten years, the share of the ten largest technology companies has tripled, exceeding 40%. Given the expected IPO of such giants as SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic, with a total valuation of several trillion dollars, this indicator will approach 50%. It is obvious that the world is on the verge of the largest financial market bubble in history since the US railroad boom in the 19th century," Sechin said.