A top Kremlin aide denied Russia might join a natural gas cartel after Iran suggested the two countries could start an OPEC-style gas exporting group.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted by state television as saying yesterday that Moscow and Tehran could launch such a group as they had the world’s largest natural gas reserves, accounting for half of the world’s total.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top adviser on European Union affairs, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said yesterday that all speculation on the matter was invented by Western journalists.

“It’s one of the Western media’s favourite games: to look for evil in Russia,” he told reporters in Moscow. “Any talk about such alliances is part of this game.”

Gas producers, including Russia, have repeatedly played down the likelihood of forming a group like the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, (OPEC) partly because the gas market is dominated by long-term contracts. Russia has the world’s largest gas reserves while Iran has the second biggest.

The West has also been closely watching Moscow’s dealings with Algeria after Russian gas monopoly Gazprom signed a cooperation agreement with the North African country’s gas company Sonatrach earlier this month.

European Union Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said last week the two countries, which together supply 35 % of the 27-nation bloc’s natural gas, could exploit their position through a partnership deal that could lead to price-fixing.

Commenting on the deal, Yastrzhembsky said Russia’s ties with Algeria conformed to international business standards.

“This cooperation is being carried out within the exact framework Gazprom has established in its relations with leading European firms,” he said.