The U.S. State Department supported the EU's complete rejection of Russian gas
TheUnited States supports the initiative to completely abandon the use of Russian gas by the European Union. This was stated by US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Jeffrey Pyatt on January 15.
"I think it's very important that Commissioner Jorgensen has outlined the goal of developing a concrete plan for complete derusification within 100 days. And the United States strongly supports that goal," he said during the speech, which was broadcast on the Atlantic Council's YouTube channel.
According to him, countries such as Slovakia, Hungary and Austria want to continue using Russian gas. However, as Payette emphasized, they insist on continuing imports because of those who "profit from these agreements."
Earlier, on January 15, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the country would speed up the construction of an oil pipeline between the two countries together with Serbia amid US sanctions that undermine European energy security.
The US authorities extended sanctions against a number of Russian corporations and their executives on January 10. The list includes Gazprom Neft and its head Alexander Dyukov, Surgutneftegaz, as well as the head of Zarubezhneft Sergei Kudryashov. In addition, restrictions were imposed on the CEO of Rosatom Alexei Likhachev. The list also included Gazprom's medium-tonnage natural gas liquefaction plant on the Baltic coast, Gazprom LNG Portovaya.
In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Washington's actions to impose new anti-Russian sanctions will not go unanswered and will be taken into account when building Russia's foreign economic strategy.