Russia and gas prices

SIR – As a former British diplomat, I like to think British ministers are well briefed and careful in what they say. It therefore came as a shock to hear Lord Agnew of Oulton, the Treasury minister, claim in Parliament that soaring energy costs are down to “a geopolitical move by Russia”. This is simply false.

Matthew Lynn (“Will the West do a Putin deal to keep the lights on?”, Features, October 16) notes that the gas shortage is due to a range of factors – revived post-covid demand, underproduction of renewables, technical outages, a cold winter – with which the Russians have little to do.

Russia in fact continues to fulfil its gas-supply contracts to the letter (as acknowledged by Angela Merkel) and is delivering gas to Europe at close to record levels. What is left over it will supply on the spot market to the highest bidder (probably China). We would do the same in its position.

The Russians view current problems in the European gas market as entirely self-inflicted. Some years ago, I was present when Vladimir Putin responded to a complaint from Gordon Brown about gas prices, explaining that we in Europe had deliberately made ourselves overdependent on the spot market – great when prices are low, but potentially catastrophic in circumstances such as prevail now.

Aggression like Lord Agnew’s will not help to get Russia’s cooperation when we need it. I do not think a deal as adumbrated by Matthew Lynn is very likely, and we certainly need to stand firm when the Russians misbehave (as they so regularly do). Nevertheless, there are issues – Islamic extremism, cybercrime, Afghanistan, Iran – where progress will depend on Russian cooperation.

If Global Britain wants to cut ice internationally it will need to keep its lines open in all directions, and stop glib demonisation of Russia.

Sir Anthony Brenton British Ambassador to Russia, 2004-2008 Cambridge