Economist Yevgeny Smirnov has said that European countries that “refuse” to buy Russian gas with rubles can only survive economically by pumping that gas away from their more pragmatic neighbors.
Smirnov, who is a professor at the Department of World Economy and International Economic Relations at the Russian State University of Management, said that Poland, for example, refused to buy gas from Russia for rubles, but buys the same gas from Germany at a higher price. Bulgaria does the same by buying Russian gas from Greece.
The expert pointed out that industrial enterprises in “rejected” countries are particularly affected by the problems of gas shortages and high prices, which places a heavy burden on the economic growth of these countries, given that obtaining gas through a third party is always more expensive.
According to the expert, this method allows countries that buy Russian gas for rubles to receive additional profit by re-pumping gas to their neighbors and thus partially compensate for their losses from the constant rise in gas prices to the market.
The expert noted that gas transfer operations to the European Union are currently unstable, and “pumping” to neighbors can stop at any time, which puts the economies of countries such as Bulgaria in a state of great uncertainty.
Source: RIA Novosti