Kirill Dmitriev’s warning comes as the war in Iran drives up prices around the world.
Europe and the U.K. desperately need Moscow’s energy as global supply tightens, Russian sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev warned this week.
“Russia will certainly receive many requests from Europe and Britain … and will decide whether to give or not,” Dmitriev predicted at a meeting of Russia’s union of industrialists and entrepreneurs, according to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti. “Our prediction is very clear: Europe and Britain will beg for Russian energy resources,” he added.
Dmitriev, who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said oil could spike to $150-$200 a barrel as conflict in the Middle East rattles global energy markets, warning of a “most severe energy crisis” that Europe is not prepared to handle.
He also claimed the West had “shot itself in the foot” by cutting reliance on Russian energy after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Dmitriev, an increasingly visible Kremlin economic envoy who has negotiated with the U.S. about the war in Ukraine, has ramped up his messaging in recent days, casting Russia as indispensable to global energy markets as supply tightens and arguing Western sanctions have backfired.
His bullish remarks come with energy prices skyrocketing as Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz disrupts liquefied natural gas flows and pushes crude oil toward $100 a barrel, stoking fears of a broader economic shock.
So far, Brussels is holding the line.
“There is no road back to dependency on Russian energy,” EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said this week, insisting the bloc should not import “as much as one molecule.”