This time things are clear: by announcing the cessation of gas deliveries to the European Union (EU) through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, Moscow acknowledged, for the first time in such an explicit way, to use gas as a political weapon – after having argued since the start of the crisis on various technical pretexts to slow down or interrupt the flow of hydrocarbons.
The Kremlin explained on Monday, September 5, that gas supplies from Russia to the EU via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline will not fully resume until “The Collective West” will not lift sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, blamed European, British and Canadian sanctions for Moscow’s failure to deliver gas through the main infrastructure bringing gas to Germany from St Petersburg through the Baltic Sea.
Gas transportation was initially suspended on August 31 for a “scheduled maintenance”, which was to be completed after three days. But on September 3, the Russian public group Gazprom announced a complete freeze on deliveries due to the dismantling of another gas turbine engine at the compressor station and the inability to solve these problems.
This argument was immediately contradicted by the manufacturer of the turbine, Siemens Energy. “We can affirm that such a finding does not constitute a technical reason to stop operations”wrote the German group in a press release at the end of the week. “The fact that Siemens would have refused to maintain the turbines is a lie”, abounds the expert of the Russian hydrocarbons market Mikhail Kroutikhin – he recalls that the sanctions do not affect the maintenance of the turbines. Three have been declared inoperative by Gazprom, while a fourth is blocked in Germany because Gazprom “always finds reasons not to have it delivered to Russia”. Four of the eight turbines needed to operate the compressor station are already in Russia.
Dramatic rise in the price of gas
According to the expert, this is a purely political decision: “The objectives are quite obvious: to make Europeans believe that they will freeze in winter, without Gazprom feeling the slightest pity. Unless the EU cancels or at least eases the sanctions against Russia and ceases its military support to Ukraine. » The Kremlin is patiently waiting for the European front to break up under the pressure of public opinion stung by inflation and bitten by the winter cold.
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