Gazprom (OGZPY) must play by the EU's competition rules, Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said Monday after Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted Brussels ' probe of the energy giant.

"All Europe needs is that Gazprom, as an important gas supplier to Europe, starts following European rules all over Europe, including central Europe," Mr. Kubilius told Lithuanian public radio.

"The sooner it happens, the better it will be for Gazprom itself, and for consumers in Europe ," he added.

Mr. Kubilius dismissed allegations made on Sunday by Mr. Putin, who accused the EU of trying to force Gazprom to sell struggling eastern European economies cheap energy.

"The concern among Russian leaders demonstrates that the practice of Gazprom in supplying gas to central Europe , where it has had monopolistic rights since Soviet times, does not comply with European fair competition rules," Mr. Kubilius said.

"The result of the EU probe should be that Gazprom follows the same rules as Norwegian or North Sea gas suppliers. I don't hear Norwegian gas suppliers complaining about European rules," he noted.

The EU said last week it had launched the probe over concerns that Gazprom is hindering competition in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia, all of them once part of the communist bloc.

Mr. Putin on Sunday condemned the move.

"United Europe wants to retain some political influence and wants us to pay for it," he said, accusing the European Commission of forcing Gazprom to shoulder the burden of "subsidizing" European economies.

Gazprom is Lithuania 's only natural gas supplier--the country separated from the Soviet Union in 1990 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004.

The two sides have long locked horns over pricing and Lithuania 's moves to implement EU reforms which Gazprom claims harms its business interests.

The EU reform, which bars suppliers from also running a country's gas distribution system, is a direct challenge to Gazprom which owns 37.1% of Lithuanian gas distributor Lietuvos Dujos.
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