(Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday that Moscow will work to divert its energy exports to the east as Europe tries reduce its dependence on them. He also said that European countries would not be able immediately to abandon Russian gas.

Russia provides around 40% of EU’s energy, while sanctions from the West over Moscow’s “special military operations” in Ukraine have harmed its exports of energy by making it more difficult to finance and logistically arrange existing agreements.

The EU is debating whether sanctions should be imposed on Russian oil and gas, while member states look for supplies elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has been establishing closer relations with China and other Asian nations, which are the top energy consumers in the world.

Putin stated that “the so-called partners of unfriendly countries admit themselves that they will not be able to survive without Russian energy resources, even without natural gas for example,” during a live televised meeting.

“There’s no substitute for Russian gas in Europe right now.”

Putin stated that Europe’s talk of cutting down energy supplies to Russia was destabilizing the market and driving up prices.

Russia is responsible for approximately a tenth the global oil production. Russia also accounts roughly a fifth in gas.

The president directed the government to submit a plan to the country by June 1, including a “expansion of transport infrastructure to African, Latin American (and other) countries in the Asia Pacific.”

He also sought clarity on the possibility of including two pipelines – China-bound Power of Siberia and the far-eastern Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok in Russian unified system of gas supplies.

These routes could be connected to the larger network to allow Russia to transfer gas from Europe to Asia, and vice versa.

Russia began gas pipeline supplies to China at the end of 2019, and then in February, it signed a 30 year contract through a pipeline. Plans are to settle all sales with euros in the future.

Putin said also that exporting agreements should be more dependent on national currencies. This is despite Russia’s intention to shift to roubles for payments of its gas supplies, mostly to Europe.

Russia’s key source of revenue, oil production, has experienced a sharp decline, and there have been difficulties paying for trade and shipping.

Global trading companies plan to cut crude and fuel imports from Russia’s state oil companies, sources claim. This is to prevent Russia falling under EU sanctions.

Putin stated that the most serious problems in the sector were caused by disruptions to energy supply logistics.