‘They’re cashing in’: Putin said that Ukraine is receiving payment for the transit of Russian gas despite the war

Ukraine continues to receive money from Russia for gas transit to Europe despite the ongoing hostilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this in an interview with the host of the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin,” Pavel Zarubin.

The journalist published a fragment of the interview on his Telegram channel.

“They are getting money from us for transit, strange as it may sound. An aggressor, an aggressor, but money doesn’t smell, they collect money for transit. Not many people talk about it. Do they get money from Gazprom? They do,” Putin said.

He reminded that “one gas pipeline works through Ukraine, but there is another one – the Ukrainian side has closed it.”

“Not us, but they closed it. What’s the point of closing it? What’s the problem – to open the second pipeline for Germany. Please. What are we to blame for?” said the Kremlin chief, adding that there is also a route for gas supplies through Poland.

Putin also stated that Europeans themselves should decide whether they need Russian gas.

“Let the Europeans decide for themselves, if they need it – let them take gas, if not – we’ll manage without it,” Putin said, adding that it all depends only on the decision of the German government.

“Nord Stream 2” – one pipeline remains despite the terrorist attack. Turn the valve on Nord Stream 2, say: “We want to receive,” and you will start receiving tomorrow. It takes a week. Well, apparently, they didn’t want to, they must have reckoned that if they didn’t take our gas, we would collapse faster than irreversible processes would occur with them. But irreversible processes are actually starting to occur with them,” the Russian president said.

According to him, industry is moving to other countries, including the USA, where more favorable conditions have been created, and energy carriers are cheaper.

“Thank God, we are coping. We are redirecting shipments to other routes, if we talk about abroad, we are increasingly working on our own gasification, on the use of these energy carriers to solve internal economic problems not only in the housing and utilities sector but also for the economy, industry,” the Kremlin chief said.

At the same time, he agreed that previously the volumes of energy supplies brought in more money, “perhaps it was more fun, but on the other hand, the less we depend on energy, the better, because the non-energy part of the economy is growing much faster than before.”

“It always happens when you just get money, then dependence arises, when you need to think, then other mechanisms come into play, they have worked for us,” Putin concluded.

Recall that in November of last year, the President of the Russian Federation already said that “money doesn’t smell,” commenting on Ukraine’s receipt of funds from the transit of Russian gas.