Putin talks to Xi, lauds ties with Beijing.
MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday that the West had “shot itself in the head” by trying to limit energy imports from the oil and gas fields of Siberia due to the Ukraine conflict, in sharp contrast to China which has increased deliveries of energy.
The war in Ukraine — and the West’s attempt to isolate Russia as punishment for the invasion — have sent the price of grain, cooking oil, fertiliser and energy soaring while Europe has vowed to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia’s strategic partnership with China had withstood attempts by the West to sow discord while the United States and its European allies had destroyed their relationship with Moscow.
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“Energy supplies are steadily increasing: China knows what it wants and doesn’t shoot itself in the foot. While to the west of Moscow, they shoot themselves in the head,” Zakharova told reporters.
“The West isolated itself from us,” Zakharova said.
She cast the European Union as plotting a “suicidal” course by trying to diversify away from Russian energy which has supplied Germany since the height of the Cold War.
Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and world’s largest exporter of natural gas.
Zakharova said Russia’s diplomatic resources had already been redirected away from Europe, the United States and Canada to Asia, Africa and the former Soviet Union.
President Vladimir Putin says relations with China are the best they have ever been and lauds a strategic partnership aimed at countering US influence.
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