WARSAW, May 23. Poland wants to help the Czech Republic refuse Russian oil supplies, Jacek Sasin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Assets of Poland, told reporters.
Earlier, the Financial Times, citing Daniel Obaitek, chairman of the board of the Polish energy concern Orlen, reported that the ban on Russian oil costs the company about $27 million a day. However, he noted that his company still uses oil coming from the Russian Federation via the Druzhba pipeline for the company's oil refinery in Litvinov, Czech Republic.
“The Orlen concern is the owner of the Unipetrol company, a company operating in the Czech Republic, the company that can be said to ensure the fuel security of the Czech Republic. Our common goal is to diversify oil supplies as soon as possible in such a way as to remove Russian oil, completely remove Russian oil is what we have already done in Poland, what we managed to do with the help of many years of activity in order to make it possible to supply oil from other directions,» Sasin said.
According to Sasin, the Czech government shares a similar approach. He believes that «these are the general expectations of both the government of the Czech Republic and the government of Poland,» as well as, in his opinion, «the entire international community.»
The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary still receive oil from Russia through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline. The European Union made an exception for them from the sanctions, allowed them to continue purchasing due to their heavy dependence on Russian raw materials.
The West stepped up sanctions pressure on Russia over Ukraine, which led to higher prices for electricity, fuel and food in Europe and the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that the policy of containment and weakening of Russia is a long-term strategy of the West, and sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy. According to him, the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people. The Russian Federation has repeatedly stated that Russia will solve all the problems that the West creates for it.
In the Russian Federation, it has been repeatedly stated that the West made a serious mistake by refusing to buy hydrocarbons from Russia, it will fall into a new, stronger dependence due to higher prices. Moscow stated that those who refused would still buy more expensively through intermediaries and would buy Russian oil and gas.