If the European Union refuses to pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles, as the Kremlin wants, Moscow will “make other decisions”. It was stated American PBS interview Press Spokesperson for Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
“I don’t know what will happen when they turn down this opportunity. As soon as we know the final decision, we will investigate what can be done. “However, we have absolutely no intention of doing charity work or sending free gas to Western Europe,” he said.
Regarding the statements of European and American politicians that they will not pay rubles for gas, Peskov warned: “No payment – no gas.” According to him, the author of the idea of the EU’s refusal to buy Russian gas was not Moscow.
“Of course we don’t want to see this in our own reality,” admitted Peskov.
economic total war
A Kremlin spokesperson said that Western countries have declared a full-scale economic war against Russia.
“Unfortunately, these conditions are completely hostile. We have entered the stage of total war. And we feel war to ourselves in Russia, as Western European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia are actually waging a war against us in trade, in the economy, in confiscating our property, confiscating our money, blocking our financial relations. ” By Peskov.
According to him, Russia has to adapt to the new reality.
“So there was no such economic war that started against our country. Therefore, it is very difficult to predict anything. In order to minimize negative consequences and further risks, it is necessary not to predict, but to act, to act, ”the Kremlin spokesman said.
about Biden
Peskov said the insults to Vladimir Putin expressed by Joe Biden are a cause for serious concern.
“They are very upset. First of all, this is a personal insult and it is difficult to imagine a place for a personal insult in the rhetoric of a political leader, and especially the political leader of the largest country in the world – the United States. For this, we are very sorry,” the Kremlin spokesman said. .
In his view, Biden’s statements about whether Putin “should or should stay” in power in Russia are unacceptable.
“It is not up to the President of the United States to decide who will become the President of the Russian Federation, but the people of Russia who will decide in the elections,” Peskov said.
On NATO’s smile
A spokesman for the Russian president said that NATO launched an attack on Moscow’s legitimate security interests a long time ago, and it carried out “slowly and with a smile on its face”.
“We believe deeply that the NATO machine is not a cooperation machine, it is not a security machine, it is a conflict machine,” Peskov said.
He also touched upon the reasons for the military operation in Ukraine.
“For several decades we have been telling the collective West that we fear NATO’s eastward expansion. We also fear that the military infrastructure of the alliance will approach directly to the Russian borders. Take care of him. Don’t corner us. But no. Then we say – we are not satisfied with the coup in Ukraine. No reaction. Then we say – we are not satisfied with the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO. This is an additional source of threat and a reason to upset the balance of mutual deterrence. No reaction. Next, we say we want relationships on an equal footing, taking into account each other’s mutual interests. “There is no reaction,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
Finally, Peskov emphasized that the Russian Armed Forces received strict orders from the very beginning of the operation not to attack civilian targets. And, according to Putin’s press secretary, they don’t – “they don’t bomb homes, apartments, only military infrastructure – in the context of Ukraine’s disarmament.”
PBS presenter disagreed with Peskov, saying that “everyone outside of Russia sees hundreds and hundreds of hours of video footage that is causing widespread damage to civilian infrastructure, apartments, theaters and hospitals.” In response, Peskov said that in the destruction of residential buildings in Mariupol and other cities, the Ukrainian national battalions, hiding weapons and snipers in the apartments, caused return fire.