Russia is holding back on gas supplies to Europe this summer to create higher prices in winter
, Lana Zerkal, Energy Minister advisor, charged in an interview Saturday on Ukraine 24 TV. “Russia is artificially holding back the European market and is not supplying the volumes that Europe needs now, for example, to fill empty gas storage facilities,” Zerkal, a former Naftogaz official, said. “It was a cold spring. Now we need to fill everything, and gas prices are very high.”