Ticker
Gas-price accusations are 'rubbish', Putin says
By EUobserver
Russia has ridiculed allegations it was withholding gas to manipulate prices. "We will increase [supplies] by as much as our partners ask us. There is no refusal, none," Russian president Vladimir Putin said at an energy forum in Moscow Wednesday. Talk of manipulation was "complete rubbish ... and politically motivated tittle-tattle", he added. Putin also called for "a long-term mechanism to stabilise the energy market" in Europe, without giving details.