Russia blames Austrian state energy company for “dishonest behavior” and defends gas cutoff

The Foreign Affairs spokesperson: “I believe that our response to this matter is more than justified”

Nov 21. () –

The Russian Government has defended this Thursday its decision that Gazprom, the Russian state company with the monopoly for the export of natural gas, cut off gas supplies to Austria and has blamed the Austrian state energy company OMV for having “behavior dishonest”.

“It is dishonest behavior on the part of the Austrian company. I think our response to this matter is more than justified. We are not going to do charity work,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zajarova said at a press conference.

Likewise, he has criticized the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, for his latest statements on the matter. “The head of the Austrian Government did not skimp on accusations, as always unfounded, against our country,” he added, according to the TASS news agency.

This comes after Nehammer stated over the weekend that Austria will not allow itself to be subjected to any kind of “blackmail”. “We will not kneel,” he assured, adding that there are sufficient gas reserves for the population.

The Austrian Chancellor also denounced that Gazprom has repeatedly breached its supply obligations to pressure Austria for its support for European Union sanctions against Russia in the context of the Ukraine war.

OMV announced last week its intention to recover 230 million euros in damages plus interest and costs in relation to the irregular supplies of German gas from Gazprom Export, a Russian subsidiary, in 2022 following the arbitration award in its favor by the Chamber. of International Trade (ICC).

The state-owned Austrian energy company plans to settle this amount by deducting the value of payments to the Gazprom subsidiary and thus offsetting it with future gas supplies from Russia until the stipulated total is covered.