Kremlin responds to German turbine accusation
Moscow has rejected claims made by Siemens Energy that Russian energy giant Gazprom was inventing pretexts for not accepting delivery of a crucial part for the Nord Stream pipeline and by doing so, is suppressing gas-flow to the EU.
“Gazprom would really like to get the turbine. After all, it wasn’t Gazprom that imposed the sanctions. But in this case, it is important for Gazprom to get legal documents stating that the turbine is not under sanctions. In this case, just words are absolutely not enough,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
His comments come after Siemens Energy reportedly accused Gazprom of lying when it said that international sanctions were preventing the return of a turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Germany to Russia.
“Everything that could be said on this issue has been said, even the German chancellor was there yesterday and spoke, there is nothing more to say… There are no EU sanctions against the turbine, it’s just not true,” Russian business news outlet RBC quoted a Siemens Energy representative as saying on Thursday. He also alleged that Russia came up on a daily basis with “various reasons” as to why it couldn’t accept the turbine.
On Wednesday Gazprom blamed Western sanctions for not being able to receive the Nord Stream turbine, which is necessary to turn up the volume of gas supply to Germany.
“The sanctions regimes of Canada, the EU, the UK and the inconsistency of the current situation with the current contractual obligations on the part of Siemens make the delivery of the 073 engine to the Portovaya [compressor station] impossible,” Gazprom said in a statement.
In late July Gazprom confirmed that it had received documents for the turbine from Siemens. According to the Russian company, however, the papers failed to clarify issues raised by the sanctions and the delivery of the part to Germany constituted a breach of contract.
As of the time of writing, the turbine remains in Germany.
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