ITAR-TASS: Putin pledges reliable energy supplies to Europe

Russia has always been a reliable supplier of energy resources to Europe and is determined to continue fulfilling its contractual obligations, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

“Our country was and remains a reliable energy supplier to Europe,” Putin said at a ceremony of receiving credentials from new ambassadors of foreign states who had arrived in Russia.

Putin said that early this week he had paid a visit to Austria, which had been the first Western country to sign a contract on natural gas imports from the former USSR.

During Putin’s visit to Austria on Tuesday, Russian gas giant Gazprom and Austria’s OMV oil and gas firm signed a shareholders’ agreement on building the Austrian section of the Russia-sponsored South Stream gas pipeline intended to pump Russian natural gas directly to Europe bypassing transit countries like Ukraine. The deal was signed despite the European Commission’s attempts to block the project implementation over Russia’s stance on Ukraine.
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