Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Moscow on Thursday: “As far as the future work of the gas pipeline is concerned, much will depend on the demand of our partners and on illegitimate sanctions.” According to Russian information, Nord Stream 1 is indispensable.
FDP presidium member and state secretary Michael Theurer described the move as an unsuitable attempt to undermine the sanctions. “We will not let Putin blackmail us,” Theurer told the Handelsblatt.
If Russia tries to put pressure on Germany, it will still require a coordinated and unified response from the West. Russia is trying to divide Europe and that will fail, he said.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has also ruled out easing the sanctions. Even such a step would not ensure the gas supply from Russia, “but we would be doubly open to blackmail,” said the Green politician on Thursday in a discussion with citizens in Bremen.
Baerbock rules out easing sanctions
Accepting that someone would break international law “in the most brutal way” would be “an invitation to all those who trample on human rights, freedom and democracy”. Therefore, Germany will support Ukraine “as long as they need us”. The EU will “maintain the sanctions and at the same time ensure that our society is not divided”.
“We would be doubly blackmailable”, said the Green politician on Thursday at a public dialogue.
(Photo: dpa)
The foreign policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Nils Schmid, sees the Russian announcements as “further evidence that Russia has said goodbye as a reliable gas supplier”. Europe must therefore push ahead with “the search for alternative sources of supply for the transitional period” and accelerate the expansion of renewable energies.
EU politicians are also emphasizing their determination. Green MEP Viola von Cramon said this was not the first attempt at blackmail and would not be the last. One should not react to it immediately. The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament, David McAllister (CDU), called for outstanding solidarity agreements between the EU member states to be concluded quickly in order to strengthen Europe’s resilience to crises.
Russia promises to deliver – and yet sows its own doubts
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom massively throttled the delivery volume through Nord Stream 1 in June – and also justified this with the lack of a turbine from Siemens Energy. It was serviced in Canada, but was not returned to Russia because of the sanctions. As a result, only about 40 percent of the usual amount of natural gas flowed through the more than 1,200-kilometer pipeline from Russia to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Regular maintenance work has been underway on the roughly 1,200-kilometer-long tube from Russia to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since July 11.
(Photo: dpa)
Regular maintenance work has been going on since Monday, which is why no gas is currently flowing through the pipeline. The work is expected to be completed by July 21. However, the German government fears that Russia will no longer be able to turn on the gas tap even after the maintenance has been completed – in response to Western sanctions because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly denied accusations of using its gas as a means of exerting political pressure. “If the turbine arrives after the repair, then that will allow for an increase in the scope of deliveries,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last Friday. A day later, Canada announced that it would deliver the turbine.
But since this week, doubts about this promise have been growing. On Wednesday, the Russian gas company Gazprom tweeted that it could not guarantee the safe operation of a “critical facility” that is part of the gas pipeline. In the interleaved tweet, Gazprom also mentioned export regulations for the Siemens turbine from Canada. Maria Zakharova’s new statement sounds a little clearer.
Russia would have the option to use other pipelines to make up for supplies that cannot be sent through Nord Stream 1 during maintenance, but is not doing so. This also suggests that Moscow is cutting back on gas for political reasons.
The consequences of a permanent delivery stop would be serious. The EU Commission expects that if the gas supply from Russia is interrupted, the European storage facilities will not be able to be filled to 80 percent by autumn, as has been targeted.
>> Read here: Freeze against Putin? What the economy and citizens have to prepare for in the event of a gas emergency
The Institut Bruegel has calculated that if the winter had normal temperatures, the last gas would be used up in February. To prevent this, gas consumption would need to be reduced by a good ten percent.
The bottleneck in the gas supply is mainly due to the fact that most of the liquefied gas on the world markets is already being bought up by European suppliers. Deliveries destined for Asian countries were even diverted to Europe because the price differences were so great.
As a result, the storage levels have increased unusually quickly in recent months and are now back to a level that is normal for this time of year. In Germany it was 64.5 percent on Thursday. That would not be enough to get through the winter. Especially since the Federal Network Agency reports that the storage levels have been declining since maintenance work on Nord Stream 1 began because the suppliers have to fall back on the reserves.
More: Reconstruction of a state failure – How Germany ran into Putin’s energy trap