RusEnergy

14.11.2006 - MosNews - Russia is not planning to set up a gas cartel like OPEC in order to blackmail consumers of Russian fuels, a source in the Kremlin has said on Tuesday, Nov. 14. “Russia is actively implementing the thesis of energy security which it initiated and made one of the main theses within the G8,” the source told Interfax news agency. He said that it was not Moscow’s intention “to blackmail its partners”. “We are just as dependent on them as they are on us, and have not set ourselves the goal of dictating our will to them,” the source said. He stressed that Russia advocated equal relations based upon the principles of a market economy. “Therefore there is no substance at all to assertions that Russia is trying to create a gas super cartel with other gas exporter states,” the source pointed out. On Monday, Nov. 13, Western media said a report had been circulated amongst NATO members stating that Russia planned to set up a gas super cartel and to get countries like Algeria, Qatar, Libya and the Central Asian states to join in, as a means of getting leverage over gas consumers. The Financial Times website quoted deputy Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying there was “no substance at all” to the suggestion that Russia was seeking a gas cartel.