The EU has imposed sanctions on Moscow and closed off supply routes, but bizarrely now blames its gas shortages on Gazprom, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. ‘Russia is ready to deliver as much gas as the bloc needs if the EU wants to stop ’stepping on rakes,’ Putin explained while visiting Tehran for a summit with the presidents of Iran and Turkey.

‘What does Gazprom have to do with it? They (Brussels) closed one route, and the second pipeline,’ Putin outlined when asked about the current shortage of gas in Germany.

‘Gazprom is ready to pump as much as necessary, but [the West] closed everything themselves. And they are stepping on the same rake when it comes to oil and petroleum products,’ the Russian president added.

The Russian gas giant has always fulfilled its contractual obligations, Putin added, calling accusations against Gazprom completely baseless and an attempt by the hapless Western countries to ’shift the blame for their own mistakes’ onto Russia.

Putin repeated what he said last month about the EU’s energy policy, saying that the bloc spent the past decade neglecting the ’traditional energy’ sector, coal, oil, gas, and nuclear – in favour of illusory green projects, such as wind and solar.

‘Banks do not finance, insurance companies do not insure, local authorities do not allocate land for new developments, pipelines and other transport are not developed,’ Putin said. ’You now see the result.’

Western nations think they are great experts in the field of non-traditional relations, the Russian president said, ‘so they decided to invest in non-traditional types of energy as well. The winter turned out to be long. There was no wind. That’s all.

Germany had also rejected Russia’s offer to reroute the deliveries through Nord Stream 2, the second pipeline under the Baltic Sea, saying the pipeline was not legally certified for operation. Berlin had put the pipeline’s certification on indefinite hold in February, prior to the Russian military operation in Ukraine. YOU CAN SHARE THIS STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA‘

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