Russia warns of retaliation on EU energy plan

(MOSCOW) – Russia sees EU plans to limit foreign investment in its energy sector as violating free market principles and will respond if the measures are enacted, a top Russian official warned Friday.

“It has unfortunately become fashionable among various states to take decisions limiting foreign investment” in the energy sector, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
“Such processes are taking place in united Europe. We think this is contradictory firstly to the spirit of globalisation and, secondly, to the principle of the open market,” the agencies quoted Medvedev as saying.

Medvedev, a top contender to succeed President Vladimir Putin in elections next March who is also chairman of the state-run energy giant Gazprom, said Russian “will be obliged to react” if the EU plans are adopted.

“There could be various responses, there could be an asymmetrical response,” he said, without elaborating.

The measures Medvedev was referring to were contained in sweeping EU plans to shake up the energy sector, including a call for major gas and electricity suppliers in the bloc to divest themselves of their pipelines and power grids.

EUbusiness