Russia wants the price of gas on the European market, its main customer, to fall by 60% from the current level, as a prolonged appreciation could affect demand for gas supplied by Gazprom, two Russian officials involved in energy policy told Bloomberg.

On Tuesday, at the Dutch hub, the reference prices for natural gas reached 88 euros for a Megawatt hour, or about $1,150 for a thousand cubic meters. Earlier this month, quotations reached a record high of 162 euros per Megawatt hour, or about $2,000 for a thousand cubic meters.

According to one of the officials quoted by Bloomberg, Russia wants gas prices in Europe to be somewhere between $300 and $400 per thousand cubic meters, a level that would allow the Gazprom group to maintain its dominant position on the continent’s market, even if states such as the United Kingdom and Poland would make the switch to cleaner energy sources. A second official also mentioned a price range of $200 to $400 per thousand cubic meters, adding that prices approaching the lower end of the range would be a less acceptable scenario.

The Kremlin has publicly expressed concern about the negative effects of the explosive rise in gas prices on Russia’s Gazprom group, which last year supplied nearly a third of the total gas consumed in Europe.

“Eventually, such a situation will lead to lower consumption and this will affect our producers, including Gazprom PJSC,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told a Moscow government meeting last week. “That is why we are not interested in an endless rise in energy prices, including natural gas,” Putin added, according to Agerpres.