Russian ambassador to Austria assesses prospects for resuming gas supply talks

If negotiations on Russian gas supplies to Europe are resumed, they will be large-scale agreements in which Austria is likely to play a secondary role. This was reported by Russian Ambassador to Vienna Dmitry Lyubinsky on February 8.

He added that the Austrian side, which previously had a serious influence in the gas sphere in Europe, has itself led the country to lose its weighty positions by its own decisions.

"It was their choice, and now they have to deal with its consequences on their own. There are no initiatives on our part to restore previous contacts - the dialog was broken not by us," Lyubinsky said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

The Russian ambassador also emphasized that at the moment Moscow sees no grounds for unilateral steps regarding the negotiations.

Austrian energy company OMV on December 12 announced the termination of the contract with Russia's Gazprom Export for gas supplies to Austria due to the cessation of supplies in November.

The contract between the companies of the two countries was concluded in 2006 and was supposed to operate until 2040. According to it, Gazprom sent OMV about 500 million cubic meters of gas every month, which is about 6 billion cubic meters per year. The fuel transfer to Austria was stopped in the morning of November 16.

Prior to that, on November 18, publicist and former Austrian presidential candidate Gerald Gros said that prices for blue fuel will rise even more in the country after the refusal of gas supplies from the Russian company Gazprom in 2025. He noted that they will rise by almost 30%.

On the same day, Maxim Chirkov, an associate professor at the Department of Economic Policy and Economic Measurements of the State University of Economics, told Izvestia that the termination of gas supplies to the OMV energy company from Russia's Gazprom Export is very negative for the Austrian economy. In addition, he did not rule out a further increase in the cost of gas on the European market.