Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that investment in Russia’s energy sector has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, but this is not related to a “special military operation”, TASS reports.

In comments during the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week, Putin instead blamed the “aggressive promotion” of green energy/

“Of course, [o astfel de agendă] it needs support, but it needs to be done wisely, and when it comes to aggressively pushing this agenda, including in the Eurozone, the global oil and gas sector has already proven underinvested,” he said.

He said that in 2020-2021, investments in oil and gas production fell to the lowest level in the last 15 years, saying that this happened “long before the start of our special operation in Donbas.”

At the time, the Russian president said investment in Russia’s energy sector was more than half of what it was in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea, blaming the situation on the actions of “so-called Western politicians” who he accused of favoring investment in green energy

In March, the European Union banned investment in Russia’s energy sector, and in early June, it imposed an embargo on the import of Russian oil.

Last week, the EU also set a price ceiling for Russian oil, but with exceptions.

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