Putin blames Western states on high energy, fertilizer prices

ST. PETERSBURG, Jul 28 (PRIME) – Western states’ premature rejection of oil and gas contributed to the misbalance on the energy and fertilizer markets, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

He said the difficulties on the energy and food market appeared during the coronavirus pandemic, when Western states printed money to support the people, not because of the situation in Ukraine.

“The United States carried out a colossal emission and the Eurozone carried out a colossal emission … printed money, channeled it to buy food on the international markets and the prices jumped immediately. This was thanks to a frankly speaking, shortsighted energy policy, when jumping the gun they started to forego hydrocarbons, when there were no grounds to rely on the effectiveness of alternative types of energy, they did not invest in the development of hydrocarbon energy," Putin said.

"This led to a growth of energy, which ended up affecting the cost of fertilizers. One error followed another. These are fundamental things, which upended the markets of both food and mineral fertilizers and energy. This is the cause of the price growth."

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