EPA Russia has accused the US of dictating to Europe over economic sanctions

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Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington was using EU states as guinea pigs and warned Brussels that the continued stand-off would seriously harm Europe’s development. In a blistering attack he accused eurocrats of colluding with EU leaders, who he branded irrational, to bow to America’s wishes and impose punishing sanctions on the Russian economy.

But he warned European consumers that their elected and unelected leaders were being taken for fools, arguing that the US was using them to pursue a damaging policy that was not costing its citizens anything. In contrast Europe is highly reliant on Russia for its supplies of national gas, with the Kremlin-owned company Gazprom supplying around a third of the continent’s needs in 2013.

EPA Moscow's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused Barack Obama of manipulating the EU

GETTY Europe relies heavily on Russia for supplies of natural gas

That relationship has been put under serious strain by the regime of EU sanctions against Moscow, which were imposed after Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine in 2014. But in a fiery speech Mr Lavrov insisted that Mr Obama was behind the punitive economic measures, which he claimed were becoming increasingly unpopular amongst ordinary Europeans. He said: “The majority of respected experts say that the EU will find it difficult to develop without Russian energy in the near term, what with the EU’s plans to decarbonise the economy and decrease gas production in Europe. “It is no secret that a considerable percent of energy and other sanctions against Russia originate in Washington and are implemented in Europe under the guise of so-called trans-Atlantic solidarity."

Paradoxically, this policy does not cost the Americans anything Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov

He added: “Paradoxically, this policy does not cost the Americans anything: they are not sustaining major losses, and even hope to convince Europe to switch from Russian gas to more expensive American liquefied natural gas. “It is for the Europeans to decide if this would be in their interests, especially now that the Old World is trying to find itself in the global economy and is facing numerous challenges and threats.” The foreign minister made the remarks whilst addressing EU business leaders who complained that their companies had been hurt by Brussels’ insistence on sanctions.

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