No more gas flows through Nord Stream 1. According to the Kremlin, nothing will change. Unless the West ends sanctions.
According to the Kremlin, gas supplies through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 will only be resumed when “the collective West” lifts sanctions imposed on Russia. The EU, Canada and Great Britain are to blame for the delivery stop, said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, adding: “We see endless attempts to somehow shift the responsibility for what is happening to us, we categorically reject these attempts”. This is not an “unfounded” claim.
Peskov’s comments are the Kremlin’s open admission that the gas cuts are aimed at forcing the West to lift sanctions imposed over Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
Since June, the state-controlled Gazprom group has been gradually shutting down gas supplies to Germany through Nord Stream 1 and has now stopped them completely. Initially, deliveries were throttled to 40 percent of maximum capacity. Reason: A Siemens Energy turbine sent to Canada for maintenance is missing.
The Canadian government had banned the delivery of the turbine due to its own sanctions imposed on Russia. The German Foreign Ministry had therefore put the Canadians under pressure with a drastic warning. If Putin uses the absence of the turbine as an excuse and completely blocks gas in Germany, there could be popular uprisings in Germany. The Canadian government then allowed the turbine to be exported to Germany. The should be transported from Mülheim an der Ruhr via Finland to Russia. However, she is still there. The Russian side refuses the import because of “sanctions concerns”.
Later, during routine maintenance, no gas flowed through the main supply line to Germany. Deliveries via Nord Stream 1 resumed after ten days, but were throttled back to 40 percent of capacity. After that, the amount would be reduced to 20 percent. Reason: Another turbine had to be repaired in the west. Deliveries were stopped again for three days last week. This time, too, Gazprom said it was maintenance work.
After that, the state-controlled company initially announced that it would pump gas through Nord Stream 1 again. Then, surprisingly, it was said that the gas flow through Nord Stream 1 would be stopped for the time being. The reason is that the oil is leaking from the last working turbine. Peskow said he hoped the turbine could be repaired somehow.
The representation contradicts Siemens Energy: According to the company, there are enough turbines in the Portovaya compressor station to operate the pipeline. The European Union also rejects the Kremlin’s version. The supply disruptions showed that Russia is using energy supplies as a weapon, a spokesman for the EU Commission said. “There is not only one gas pipeline from Russia to Europe.” In the event of a technical problem with Nord Stream 1, Gazprom could supply gas to Europe via other pipelines. Gas from Russia continues to flow through pipelines via Ukraine and Turkey to the EU.
The Kremlin makes no secret of the fact that it hopes for an energy crisis in the EU. “If the Europeans make an absolutely absurd decision and refuse to maintain facilities owned by Gazprom, then that (…) is the fault of the politicians who made decisions about sanctions,” Peskov said. Politicians in the West are now making sure “that their citizens suffer strokes when they see their electricity bills”. Now that it’s getting colder, the situation is getting worse.
Ex-President Dmitry Medvedev has accused Germany of “hybrid warfare” against Russia and justified the gas supply stop with “unfriendly” behavior by the German government in the Ukraine war. Germany is behaving like an enemy of Russia because it has imposed sanctions “on the entire Russian economy” and is supplying “deadly weapons” to Ukraine. Referring to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the deputy chairman of the Russian National Security Council wrote: “And this old uncle is surprised that the Germans are encountering small problems with the gas.”
