Erdogan blames Europe’s energy crisis on Russia sanctions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday blamed Europe’s energy crisis on the sanctions it imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. It seemed like he has the same opinion of the Kremlin.

Erdogan has sustained good working relations with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. In the same time, he is trying to stay neutral in the conflict and providing Ukraine with Turkish weapons and combat drones.

Before departing for a three-nation swing through the Balkans, he pointed that European nations were “harvesting what they sowed” by imposing economic restrictions on Russia, according to reporters.

“Europe’s attitude towards Mr Putin, its sanctions, brought Mr Putin, willingly or not, to the point of saying: If you do this, I will do that,“ Erdogan said.

“He is using all his means and weapons. Natural gas, unfortunately, is one of them”. he highlighted.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday blamed Russia’s cut off of gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline on sanctions that were imposed against Russia.

Last year, Turkey’s own natural gas purchases were from Russia.

Turkey promised slowly transition to paying for the Russian imports with rubles at a summit between Erdogan and Putin in Sochi in the beginning of this month.

Analysts believe

The deal will assure that Russia will continue to supply Turkey with gas through the TurkStream pipeline running under the Black Sea, according to analysts’ beliefs.

Erdogan insured that he did not expect Turkey to face any energy shortages this year.

“I think Europe will have serious issues this winter. We do not have such a situation.” Erdogan added.

The surge in global energy prices due to Russian supply disruptions has stoked an economic crisis in Turkey and caused annual inflation soar to 80 percent and the lira plunge in value.