Russia has stopped sending gas to Europe through a major pipeline because it needs maintenance.
Gazprom, a state-owned Russian energy behemoth, has announced that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would be offline for the next three days. As of now, Russia has already drastically cut pipeline gas shipments.
Energy sanctions as retaliation for Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine are likewise denied.
From the Russian coast at St. Petersburg, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline travels 745 miles (or 1,200 kilometers) under the Baltic Sea to reach north-eastern Germany.
It began operation in 2011 and can transport up to 170 million cubic meters of gas per day from Russia to Germany.
Russia claims that malfunctioning equipment is to blame for the pipeline’s current low output (down to 20% from its previous level) and a 10-day shutdown in July.
There is concern among European politicians that Russia would prolong the outage to further increase gas prices, which have already increased by 400%.
The sharp increase might cause a cost of living crisis during the winter months, requiring governments to spend billions to lessen the load.
Russia is “using gas as a weapon of war,” French Energy Minister Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said on Tuesday.
Earlier, Gazprom had announced it would stop supplying gas to Engie, a French energy business, thus she was speaking on the matter.
A spokeswoman for Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied the allegations, instead blaming Western sanctions for the damage to Russia’s infrastructure.
Despite not providing details, he asserted that “technical challenges” brought on by Western sanctions were the only thing keeping Russia from supplying gas via the pipeline.
The most recent dispute involves a turbine that was refurbished in Canada and then shipped to Germany, where it remained until Russia refused to accept it on the grounds that it was subject to Western sanctions but Germany says that’s not true.
At the beginning of the month, Economy Minister Robert Habeck stated that the pipeline was completely operating and that there were no technical concerns, contrary to Russia’s claims.
Energy markets are “no longer fit for purpose,” according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who pledged intervention in them at a conference in Slovenia earlier this week.
She argued that a new market model was required for power that actually worked and restored equilibrium.
The BBC reported last week that a Russian factory close to the Finnish border was wasting almost $10m (£8.4m) worth of gas every day.
