Russia is using its natural gas as a "weapon" in international relations, the European Union's energy chief said Thursday, underscoring again how energy relations between the two are becoming increasingly tense.

"Putin is not interested in having a new Red Army, he sees energy as being his weapon," Guenther Oettinger said during an event about Europe 's energy security at the European Parliament. The EU has to recognize that quickly and react jointly, he said.

The comment comes just three weeks after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev asked his Security Council to review the energy issue with the EU as a potential threat.

Outside experts have long said Russia 's new foreign policy tool is its gas, but top EU officials have rarely used such stark language in public. Pressed by journalists, Oettinger, who has a reputation as one of Brussels ' more outspoken officials, specified that his words were merely aimed at providing a picture of the situation.

There has long been friction on energy between Russia and Brussels , where some officials remain leery after conflicts between Russia and the Ukraine disrupted some shipments to Eastern Europe in recent years. The European Commission, which has executive and antitrust powers in the EU, has been pushing member countries to implement new rules to liberalize its natural gas market and break the grip that energy majors have on it.

This also means eroding OAO Gazprom's (GAZP.RS) position in Europe and forcing the company to loosen its control over pipelines that import Russian gas to Europe , something Moscow has seen as a threat to its investments.

The situation has been exacerbated by an antitrust investigation launched by the European Commission against energy companies in eastern Europe based on the suspicion they were partitioning markets, preventing competitors from using networks and imposing excessive prices. Gazprom's deputy chief executive earlier this week publicly slammed the EU investigation.

Medvedev last month portrayed recent natural gas troubles with the EU as a potential threat to be reviewed by the country's Security Council, which includes Russia 's ministers of foreign affairs, emergency situations and defense.

"The recent events have pushed me to place this issue on the agenda of the Security Council so that the leadership of our country can work out an action plan for the government and the top players in the energy market in their cooperation with Europe ," Medvedev said.

The EU is likely to become increasingly dependant on Russian gas in the foreseeable future as some European countries retreat from nuclear power.

Oettinger himself acknowledged Tuesday--as he was inaugurating the opening up of a new gas pipeline from Russia to Germany--that Russia is expected to further increase its gas shipments to Europe in the longer term to around 200 billion cubic meters a year from around 125 bcm now, or some 25% of the EU's gas consumption.

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