BERLIN, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Monday’s surging European gas prices are part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy and the intended consequence of Russia halting gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a German government spokesperson said.
Speaking at a regular press conference, the spokesperson said there were difficult months ahead but that the government was working to blunt the effect of the energy price jump.
Earlier, the Kremlin on Monday said that Western sanctions were to blame for a complete shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
In a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said sanctions were “causing chaos” in terms of maintenance work on the pipeline and rejected claims Russia had turned off supplies to Europe as a political move.
Gazprom has completely halted gas supplies through the pipeline after it said it detected an oil leak during maintenance work last week.
The Kremlin says sanctions are disrupting the ability of Siemens Energy, which supplies and services equipment for the pipeline, to help repair an engine oil leak at the pipeline’s Portovaya compressor station.
“Problems with gas supply arose because of the sanctions imposed on our country by Western states, including Germany and Britain,” Peskov said on Monday.
“There are no other reasons that lead to problems with supplies,” he added.
Peskov said that if sanctions were lifted, the repair work could be completed easily and gas flows could resume.
The announcement from Moscow came hard on the heels of an agreement among U.S.-led rich nations to seek ways to cap the prices paid for Russian oil exports, and raised fears that parts of Europe could be forced to ration energy.
“If the Europeans absolutely absurdly make a decision to refuse to service their equipment, or rather, equipment that belongs to Gazprom, but which they are contractually required to service, this is not Gazprom’s fault,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Russia’s state television, according to the Interfax news agency.
“It is the fault of those politicians who made decisions on sanctions.”
Gazprom said on Friday it could no longer provide a timeframe for restarting deliveries after finding an oil leak that meant a pipeline turbine could not run safely.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told the Russian state television that in order for the equipment to continue working, Siemens Energy must fulfil the terms of the turbine maintenance contract.
“All the terms of the repair contract have been completely violated, the conditions for transporting this equipment have been violated,” Interfax cited Novak as saying.
“In addition, sanctions have been introduced – both from Canada and from the European Union – on the relevant equipment, therefore they need to be brought into line with the contractual terms in order for this equipment to really continue to work.”
Siemens Energy said it had not been commissioned to carry out the work but that it was available .
There was no information from either Peskov or Novak on when Moscow might resume the flows.
Europe has accused Russia of weaponising energy supplies in what Moscow has called an “economic war” with the West over the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
