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Europe’s energy market could face renewed pressure this winter if temperatures drop sharply, Russia’s state-run gas supplier Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller warned on Monday, cautioning that the continent’s gas balance remains vulnerable as the European Union moves forward with its plan to phase out Russian imports.
"The available data already indicates potential instability," Miller told the state-run Rossiya-24 TV channel, adding that a harsh winter could disrupt Europe’s natural gas market.
His remarks come as the EU advances legislation to fully ban Russian pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies by 2028 under its REPowerEU strategy—an effort to end reliance on Moscow following years of energy dependence.
Miller said Russia plans to deliver more than 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China this year through the Power of Siberia 1 pipeline, reflecting a long-term pivot toward Asian markets.
He described Russia and China as the “key players shaping the future architecture of the global gas market," with Russia as the largest producer and China as the largest consumer.
Commenting on Europe’s green transition, Miller said the bloc’s reliance on renewables has shown weaknesses during adverse weather. An Arctic anticyclone, characterized by cold conditions with limited sun and wind, had recently caused a sharp drop in renewable output, he noted.
According to Miller, this forced European countries to turn back to traditional hydrocarbons, revealing the limits of renewable reliance during extreme weather periods.
EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday approved a European Commission proposal to phase out both pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Russia by the end of 2027, pending approval by the European Parliament.
While sanctions require unanimous backing from all 27 EU members—a threshold often hard to reach—Monday’s trade measure passed with a weighted majority of 15 countries. All but Hungary and Slovakia, which maintain closer ties with Moscow, supported the decision, according to diplomats.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto warned that the move would "kill" his country’s secure energy supply, citing Hungary’s landlocked geography. Under the plan, new contracts for Russian gas will be banned from Jan. 1, 2026, while short-term deals can continue until June 17, 2027, and long-term ones until Jan. 1, 2028, allowing time for adjustment.
Although pipeline gas flows from Russia have dropped sharply since the invasion of Ukraine, several EU countries have boosted Russian LNG purchases.
Russia now supplies about 13% of the bloc’s gas imports, down from 45% before the war, with Hungary, France, and Belgium still among the importers.
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