Brussels responds to Moscow: Russian energy imports down from 40-45% to 12%

The news currently comes from a single source (ANSA); no independent confirmation is available regarding the data cited by either party.

Moscow has stated that it sold energy supplies worth over 320 billion to European countries since 2022, despite the sanctions in force against Russia. The European Commission responded through its own spokesperson, shifting the focus from the absolute figure claimed by Moscow to the trajectory of the decline in Russian supplies to the Union.

According to the Commission, imports of Russian fossil fuels have fallen from the 40-45% recorded in 2022 to the current 12%. This is a decline that Brussels presents as proof of its own strategy of energy disengagement from Russia, launched immediately after the start of sanctions. The comparison between the two figures — the 320 billion collected by Moscow and the collapse of its market share in the Union — tells two parallel narratives of the same phenomenon: Russia measures the absolute value of residual sales, the Commission the relative share lost.

The regulatory framework of reference is the REPower legislation, presented by the Commission in 2022, which provides for a gradual elimination of Russian fossil fuels from the European Union by a deadline set by the plan itself. The Commission’s spokesperson insisted on the temporal dimension of the process rather than on the specific figure claimed by Moscow, emphasizing that the stated goal remains the complete elimination of imports.

The Commission’s spokesperson stated: “what matters is the long-term perspective.”

The exchange of figures between Moscow and Brussels is part of a broader confrontation over European energy dependence on Russia, which remains one of the open issues in relations between the Union and Moscow since the start of sanctions. The 12% figure released by the Commission represents, for now, the most recent figure put forward by Brussels in response to the Russian claim, while cross-verification of the 320 billion declared by Moscow remains without independent confirmation.