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Europe will remain dependent on Russian gas for years to come, energy giant Centrica has warned, dismissing suggestions the EU can replace it with other sources as "unrealistic". European leaders have scrambled to try to cut reliance on imports from Vladimir Putin's Russia since the Ukraine crisis escalated last year, with Ed Davey, the energy secretary, suggesting loft insulation and wind farms were needed to "take on the Kremlin".  But Rick Haythornthwaite, Centrica chairman, told shareholders on Monday: "Whatever we might want as Europe, we need to be very careful about being pragmatic about the realities of it... I think it's unrealistic to think that Russian gas is going to be replaced in the near-term."  Iain Conn, Centrica chief executive, added: "Russia supplies... about a third of Europe's gas. You can't switch that off easily without huge consequence. There is no way the United States can supply that volume of LNG to replace it."  If sanctions were imposed on Russian gas companies would have to comply, he said, but it would have "a very significant impact on Europe's ability to balance its natural gas sources and uses", particularly in Eastern Europe which was "not plumbed in to many alternatives".   But he added that Russia had been a "a reliable supplier of gas all the way through the Cold War" and that it needed European demand. "Russia realises that plays a very important part in Russia's own future and there's as much value in this co-dependency as there is potential threat," he said...He's got balls - the last European energy guy to suggest Russian sanctions were unwise ended up smeared across the landscape after Langley flew his plane into a snow plough.