Mikhail Margelov, chairman of Russia's Committee for International Relations, said his country was highly dependent on the European Union which receives most of its crude oil and natural gas exports.
'Russia sells 80 percent of its foreign exports in crude oil and natural gas to the European Union... Russia is very much interested in being a secure and predictable supplier of oil and gas for Russia's partners,' he said at a high-level security forum.
01 June 2008: Thomson Financial News
SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Russia is serious about becoming a stable energy supplier to its neighbours and is not out to pursue an imperialist policy, a Russian official said Sunday.
Mikhail Margelov, chairman of Russia's Committee for International Relations, said his country was highly dependent on the European Union which receives most of its crude oil and natural gas exports.
'Russia sells 80 percent of its foreign exports in crude oil and natural gas to the European Union... Russia is very much interested in being a secure and predictable supplier of oil and gas for Russia's partners,' he said at a high-level security forum.
The EU is struggling to diversify its oil and gas sources in order to reduce its dependence on Russia.
The disruption of gas supplies in several European countries after Russia briefly turned off the taps to Ukraine in January 2006 as part of a bitter price dispute was cited by critics as example of Moscow using its energy might for political ends.
But Margelov stressed at the Shangri-La Dialogue forum that Moscow does 'not want to pursue an imperialist policy. We all are equal, we all believe in market economies, so you pay the market price.'
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