Spain boosting Russian gas imports - Russian ambassador in Madrid

MOSCOW. Oct 6 (Interfax) - Spain continues to increase its imports of Russian gas, and it makes no economic sense for Madrid to terminate its long-term contract with Russia, Russian Ambassador to Spain Yury Klimenko said in an interview published in the Izvestia newspaper on Friday.

"Despite the Spanish authorities' calls to gradually reduce purchases of our energy resources and to stop buying them in the future, Madrid continues to increase its imports of Russian gas. Thus, 53,200 GWh of our LNG were exported [to Spain] in January-August 2023, which is 38.5% more than over the same period in 2022 (32,700 GWh)," Klimenko said.

"As a result, Russia is now securely in third place on the list of key suppliers, accounting for 19.7% of the total imports vs 8.9% in 2021, while Spain has become the major buyer of Russian LNG in Europe," he said.

"It makes no economic sense for Madrid to terminate the existing major long-term contract," he said.

Klimenko gave a negative answer when asked whether Spain has stopped admitting vehicles registered in Russia.

"As far as I know, to date Spain has not imposed any entry ban for vehicles with Russian license plates. I'd like to hope that Spaniards, unlike the other known member states of the European Union, will take a more balanced and rational approach to this matter and will not adopt this totally absurd and odious measure, which the European Commission left to the discretion of the national agencies in charge of these issues," the ambassador said.