OREANDA-NEWS. As Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Croatian newspaper Vecherni List, Russia has been a reliable and honest partner in the supply of energy resources to other countries for a really long time. Russian contracts on supplies of gas have no any political motivation and purposes, they are about simple financial relations and mutual benefit. At the same time, Russia hasn't ever imposed its gas and contracts on it on anyone.

Sergei Lavrov disapproves of the rumours about the notorious "dependence" of Croatia and other European countries on Russian gas, which is intended to raise doubts and lack of confidence. He emphasizes that Russia does not impose anything on anyone, and that it has always fulfilled all concluded gas supply arrangements with full responsibility.

As for the construction of an LNG terminal on the Croatian island of Krk, which is co-financed by the European Union, Russia respects the right of any country to independently determine its energy policy and choose sources of energy supplies.

He is confident that the construction of an LNG terminal on the island of Krk, the capacity of which will be 2.7 billion cubic meters of gas per year,  is a purely internal Croatian affair. If Croatia thinks that it is better to buy liquefied, and not cheaper pipeline gas, then it has complete freedom to do so. After all, each country has the right to do what is more profitable for itself.

Lavrov added that Russia is not at all opposed to competition, but competition should be healthy and fair, based on market principles, and not dirty and dubious, based on political slogans of the Cold War.