Russia blames sanctions for EU gas-supply disruptions

Problems with turbine repair at Russia’s Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline are artificial and have been caused by Western sanctions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

“Gazprom has outlined the real situation, the actual state of affairs. There are breakdowns that require urgent repair, and there are certain artificial difficulties that were introduced by the very so-called sanctions, illegal restrictions,” he said, commenting on the situation around the return of a turbine from repairs in Canada and the subsequent reduction of Nord Stream’s capacity to supply gas to Europe.

“This situation needs to be sorted out, and there is not much Russia can do here,” he added.

One of the turbines from Nord Stream’s Portovaya compressor station, which facilitates gas deliveries from Russia to Europe, has been stuck at a Siemens factory in Canada for several weeks now due to Ottawa’s sanctions against Russia. Last week, Gazprom said it had received documents from the Canadian authorities which would allow the turbine to leave Canada, but only to be delivered as far as Germany. Gazprom says questions remain about EU and UK sanctions, and how these would affect the turbine’s further transfer from Germany to Russia.

Last week, Gazprom stopped the operation of another Siemens gas turbine at Portovaya, which caused a further drop in gas deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just 20% of maximum capacity.

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