OREANDA-NEWS  Russia's deliberate actions in relation to gas supplies have created an artificial shortage, which can be called blackmail with full confidence, but Europe has a set of retaliatory levers of pressure on these actions. This is how the American financier and billionaire George Soros assessed the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the shortage of natural gas in the European Union, CNBC reports.

The billionaire said, that Putin "left gas in storage and did not supply it to Europe. This created a shortage, then raised prices and brought him a lot of money. But his position in the negotiations between Moscow and Europe]is not as strong as it seems at first glance." 

According to Soros, the European Union is a very important market for the Kremlin, and Russia really needs revenues from gas sales to support the national economy. "Europe is only market. If gas is not supplied to Europe, the Russian authorities will be forced to close gas fields in Siberia —  are about 12 thousand wells involved," he concluded.