OREANDA-NEWS The EU's refusal to supply energy resources from Russia has led to stagnation of the European economy, inflation and dependence on U.S. LNG, Kirill Logvinov, Acting Permanent Representative to the European Union, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"After limiting domestic energy supplies, the EU was forced to put its economy on a dry ration. Since the autumn of 2022, it has been in a state of stagnation. For several consecutive quarters, the European Union has recorded near—zero GDP growth rates (in the third quarter of 2023 - 0.0 percent for the EU and minus 0.1 percent for the eurozone). Growth at the end of last year is expected to be only 0.6 percent, in both cases, while the largest European economy, Germany, went "into the red," the agency's interlocutor said.

According to him, "the rise in energy prices provoked unprecedented high inflation in the eurozone, which in October 2022 reached a record high of 10.6% (in annual terms)." "The result is a drop in real incomes of the population and a subsidence in consumer demand," the Russian diplomat concluded.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that the West has made a serious mistake by refusing to buy hydrocarbons from Russia, it will fall into a new, stronger dependence due to higher prices.