Problems with gas supplies via Nord Stream will persist until the sanctions preventing the maintenance of pipeline units are lifted, said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s state-controlled agency Interfax reported.
Gazprom shut down supplies through the Nord Stream pipeline indefinitely on 2 September after it said a leak was detected.
“Problems in pumping arose due to sanctions imposed against our country and against a number of companies by Western states, including Germany and Great Britain. There are no other reasons that would lead to problems with pumping,” Peskov told journalists.
He explained that “one unit was left working, and it malfunctions, and breakdowns occur there, and this leads to a stoppage of pumping.”
“Given that the sanctions continue to work, given that they introduce absolute chaos, legal and practical, into what is connected with the maintenance of all units and aggregates, for now we can only hope for this single aggregate that it will somehow be put in order,” Peskov continued.
Peskov said that if sanctions were lifted, the repair work could be completed easily and gas flows could resume, according to Reuters.
According to energy expert Mykhailo Honchar, the Kremlin is bluffing when it says that technical malfunctions prevent it from delivering gas to the EU. The Portovaya station has eight turbines, six of which are working turbines, and two of which are spares.
Russia claiming all turbines suddenly broke down is a “fairy tale,” said Honchar at the time that the Kremlin claimed that only three turbines are working: “no expert will believe four Siemens turbines fail at the same time.” And even so, Russia could take turbines from the Nord Stream-2 pipeline nearby, which was frozen with the advent of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Read more about the Portovaya station and the Kremlin’s gas blackmail in our interview with Honchar:
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