Experts suggest revision of the position on the refusal of gas from Russia in Europe

The European Commission (EC) could not give Izvestiya an exact date for the publication of the roadmap for the final phase-out of Russian gas. Initially, its publication was scheduled for March 26. In their response to the publication's request, they referred to a comment by European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen.

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The parties have already negotiated supplies and intend to strengthen energy cooperation.

"The work is ongoing. A roadmap will be presented. I don't have a date that I can announce yet, but we are of course following developments very closely and preparing our plan so that it will be appropriate at the time of publication," Itkonen said.

In the meantime, Europe has begun to talk openly not about refusing Russian gas, but about increasing its supplies. In particular, top managers of French companies TotalEnergies and Engie called for increasing imports from Russia to 70 billion cubic meters per year from the current 50 billion.

According to Ekaterina Kosareva, managing partner of WMT Consult, it seems that today the European Commission has taken a wait-and-see attitude while the countries of the Old World are digesting the shock of US President Donald Trump's tariffs.

"Europe first experienced a serious energy shock after the reduction in supplies of Russian energy resources. And now it is being "finished" with tariffs by Trump, among other things, demanding to buy $350 billion worth of energy from the U.S. The EU has already shot off one of its legs, I don't think its economy is ready for more sacrifices. Therefore, Brussels has taken a wait-and-see attitude, analyzing the current situation," the expert said.

According to experts, it is not technically difficult to return to the volumes that European businessmen are talking about. However, it is necessary to give up financial claims against Gazprom, which currently amount to about 15 billion euros and launch Nord Streams. At the same time, if the U.S. takes control over the transit pipelines, prices for Russian raw materials for Europeans are unlikely to be low.

Read more in Izvestia's exclusive article:

Fuel bug: the EU may reconsider its position of refusing gas from Russia