Russia to assess EU energy price cap, says country's top official

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that Russia will examine the EU's decision to introduce a price cap on Russia's energy resources and will work out an action plan.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Second Caspian Economic Forum in Moscow, Novak said: "We need to see the paper first, what is written there."

Novak added that the EU "got confused about its own sanctions," and that among other things this led to the halt of Nord Stream gas pipeline work.

He urged the EU to return to "the normal legal framework," which will allow the Nord Stream to work normally.

Russia and Iran have been negotiating swap supplies of 5 million tons of oil and 10 billion cubic meters of gas, Novak noted, saying he expects the talks will end positively before the end of the year.

"Questions in transport, logistics, and price. These are commercial contracts that need to be worked out in detail. Our economic operators are working in this direction," he said.

In 2018, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov suggested the idea of holding the Caspian Economic Forum on a permanent basis to expand economic cooperation between Caspian states -- Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan.