"Energy security is important to all countries, including us, Romania, and Europe as a whole. It's no big discovery for us that prices have always depended on Russia's top leadership. It doesn't matter at all whether Gazprom itself was said to be negotiating or it's some other decision. I see nothing new here, only perhaps there's more clarity now about whom we have to speak directly to," she told LRT Television by telephone from Romania.
Grybauskaitė was commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree requiring that Russia's strategic companies and their subsidiaries obtain permission from a government authorized institution before carrying out certain actions.
"It's difficult to look for the sun together with the Russian neighbor, because the sun is not given out for free there," the president said when asked if she personally intended to call the Russian president.
Putin's decree follows the launch of the European Commission's probe into whether Gazprom, which supplies 36 percent of Europe's gas, might be abusing its dominant market position in Central and Eastern Europe, in breach of EU antitrust rules.
Alexei Miller, one of Gazprom's top executives, said on Tuesday that the decree would prevent Lithuanian, Polish, and German energy companies from negotiating any price discounts with the Russian gas giant.
Lithuania thinks that Gazprom applies discriminatory prices to the country, which is the first Baltic state that is implementing the EU's third energy package and aims to unbundle the assets of Lietuvos Dujos, in which the Russian group holds a significant stake.
A Lithuanian court has ruled to launch a probe into Lietuvos Dujos' operations. The Energy Ministry turned to the court in an effort to remove the company's top management, who allegedly did not negotiate with Gazprom for lower gas prices to Lithuania.
Lithuania currently pays the highest price for Gazprom's natural gas in the EU, at 1,578 litas (EUR 457.4) per 1,000 cubic meters, including capacity and transportation charges.
