Kremlin says Russia is not holding gas supply talks with Europe or the US

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia is not holding talks with Europe or the United States about Russian gas supplies via Ukraine.

Russian gas supplies to Europe have collapsed since the start of the military conflict in Ukraine in February 2022 and blasts at the subsea Nord Stream pipelines.

Gas exports to Europe from Russia via Ukraine also fell from the start of this year when a transit deal expired and Ukraine refused to extend it because of the war in Ukraine.

A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters this month that the U.S. demanded that the U.S. government’s International Development Finance Corporation take control of a natural gas pipeline from Russian energy giant Gazprom across Ukraine to Europe as part of broader peace talks.

Russia’s only remaining gas route to Europe is TurkStream via the Black Sea to Turkey and further to southern and central Europe.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were no talks with the U.S. and Europe about more Russian gas supplies.

“No, there are no (talks)… The point was that this is a commercial story. There is a gas seller, there are potential buyers of gas,” he said on a daily conference call with reporters.

“If the buyers show interest, if the transit route works, then, of course, the seller will be ready to discuss all of this. Nobody denies or rejects anything.”

On Wednesday, in an interview with French magazine Le Point, Peskov said that Gazprom was ready to resume supplies.

“Gazprom will surely debate it. We are ready to trade our gas and we know that there are certain countries in Europe that want to keep buying it from us. Everything will be settled commercially,” he said.

(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Andrew Osborn and David Goodman)