Kremlin says Europe is "hurting itself" over Russian gas; Der Standard says Chinese buyers pushed oil past 100 dollars

The rise. Six reports, all filed on 9 September, say gas, fuel and wholesale power went up together across Europe. None measures the same thing.

The cause. Four culprits, and no report we hold sets them against each other.

The remedy. Le Figaro reports the French finance ministry refusing wider help: capping prices, it says, "c'est organiser la pénurie". Efimerida ton Syntakton calls the Greek government "απούσα" — absent — and quotes no minister answering. No other report we hold puts the question to a government.

What is not settled. How much prices rose. Two of the six carry a figure: oil over 100 dollars a barrel, which Der Standard states flat, and heating oil "at least 70%" dearer, which Efimerida ton Syntakton attributes to the head of the fuel retailers rather than to price data. Neither figure gets a base year here. The two Romanian reports both credit Reuters and open with near-identical sentences, so Moscow's explanation reaches us once, not twice. No report prices Moscow's cheaper-gas offer against what Europe pays now. Nobody paying a bill is quoted in any of the six.

What this is about. Why households across Europe paid more for gas, petrol, diesel and electricity in the week to 9 September 2026, and who is held responsible for it.

How it got here. Before 2022, Russia was the European Union's largest supplier of natural gas, most of it arriving by pipeline. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Union set out to end that dependence: sanctions, the REPowerEU plan of May 2022, and a switch to liquefied gas carried by ship from the United States, Qatar and elsewhere. Shipped gas is bought on a world market against Asian buyers, so European bills now move with events far outside Europe. Oil already worked that way — traded globally, priced in dollars, with China its largest importer. Energy taxes and subsidies stayed national: Paris and Athens set fuel duty and decide who gets help, not the European Commission.

The war has not ended. We reported on 6 September that Le Figaro said Putin had ordered a three-day halt on Kyiv, while NOS said both presidents agreed one with no end date; and on 9 September that the Kremlin called itself open to developing ties with Europe. Moscow's offer of cheaper gas sits inside that: an argument about the war as much as about price.

Who is in it. The Kremlin, which lost its biggest gas market and wants it back. National governments, which hold the tax and subsidy levers and face voters before winter. And the oil market, where two of the reports point outside Europe entirely — HotNews.ro to a war in Iran, Der Standard to Chinese buying. We hold no report describing either, so neither cause is settled here.

What is at stake. Heating bills through the winter, and the political question beneath them: whether governments spend to soften prices, and whether the cost revives the case for buying Russian gas again.

Where it stands. Prices up, four explanations, and one government answering — with a refusal.