Igor Bashmakov, Executive Director of Center for Effective Use of Energy

— Russia wastes as much gas as it exports

Every year Russia loses 170bln c m of gas because of ineffective use, says the Executive Director of the Center for the Effective Use of Energy Igor Bashmakov.

“If we took serious measures to enhance energy efficiency, we would save exactly as much gas. This is almost as much as we export a year,” says Bashmakov.

The Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy Valery Yazev says that Russia consumes three times as much electricity as developed countries do for implementing the same tasks. He says that the energy balance of the country should be regarded not as a target program but as a federal law. “We should not only effectively use our resources but we should actively increase coal and nuclear power production,” says Yazev.