Russia’s top gas industry executives have leapt to the de-fense of the country’s long-term, oil-indexed contracts andcompetitiveness over the past week, claiming Europe’s spotmarket was found wanting after a sudden drop in temper-atures on the continent and subsequent spike in demandstretched even Gazprom too far.Asked by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the week-end why the shivering Europeans were not buying on thespot market to compensate for recent Russian shortfalls,Gazprom Export chief Alexander Medvedev replied thatthe talk about the spot market having high liquidity was“to put it mildly, a considerable exaggeration.”
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