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Putin offers to ease EU gas crunch
By EUobserver
Russian president Vladimir Putin offered on TV on Wednesday to export "record" amounts of gas to Europe to ease a price crunch, claiming Russia was a "reliable supplier", despite its history of politically-motivated cut-offs. Deputy prime minister Alexander Novak urged German regulators to quickly certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help. The "speculative frenzy" on markets was because of Europe's "erroneous" preference for short-term contracts, Putin also said