According to a new study of the energy market, for the first time in almost two years ago, the EU countries imported more natural gas from Russia in one quarter than from the USA, DPA reported, quoted by BTA..
From April to June, the European Union bought more than 12.7 billion cubic meters from Russia and 12.3 billion cubic meters from the United States, reports the Brussels-based think tank "Bruegel" (Bruegel).
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, shipments from Russia fell slightly, but those from the US fell more sharply, the study said.
Norway remains the largest supplier of gas in the EU with 23.9 cubic meters in the second quarter.
Russia held this position until its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after which many EU countries reduced Russian imports.
According to German government statistics, this country no longer buys gas from Russia. Across the EU, however, Russia has risen to second place on the list of suppliers, just ahead of the US. It is not clear from the data which are the countries of destination.
In the Sunday edition of the newspaper "Welt“ Norbert Rothgen, a foreign affairs expert for Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition party, called for an EU-wide ban on Russian gas imports.
"The Europeans are supporting Ukraine with billions and at the same time pouring billions into Putin's war coffers - this is neither responsible, nor rational, nor hopeful,” said Rotgen.
Michael Kruse, energy policy spokesman for Germany's pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), a member of the governing coalition, said the EU could "pay a fixed amount of aid and arms supplies to Ukraine for every cubic meter of imported Russian gas“.
"This would allow Putin himself to pay for the resistance to his barbaric attacks,”, Kruse told the newspaper.