The Kremlin assured on Monday that the halt of Russian gas deliveries to Germany via the strategic Nord Stream pipeline was the sole fault of the West, because their sanctions prevent the maintenance of gas infrastructure.
“The problems of pumping (gas) appeared because of the sanctions of Western states. There is no other reason for these problems,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
He was speaking a few days after the complete shutdown of Nord Stream, a crucial pipeline for the supply of Europeans who fear an energy crisis this winter.
“It is these sanctions (…) that have led to the situation we are now observing,” he said in a press conference.
The Kremlin spokesman also “categorically rejected” the “incessant attempts” of the West to “blame and blame” on Moscow.
“The West – in this case the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom – is responsible for the fact that the situation has reached such a point,” he added.
Dmitry Peskov has once again justified the cessation of Russian gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline, announced last Friday, by the “serious maintenance” that requires, according to him, the last turbine that was operating until then. “It doesn’t work well, breakdowns happen there.
This causes the flow to stop,” he said. The Russian giant Gazprom said on Friday that it had discovered “oil leaks” in the turbine during a maintenance operation at a compressor station in Russia.
In particular, Moscow claims that Western sanctions taken following the Russian offensive in Ukraine are preventing the return of a Siemens turbine that had been sent to Canada for repair. Germany, where the turbine is located, assures that it is Russia that is blocking the return of this key part.
The halt in gas flows between Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea has in recent days further heightened European fears of facing an unprecedented energy crisis this winter.
