At the beginning of the war, Moscow turned off the gas supply to Europe. Now President Putin is offering it again and, in view of the impending transit stop through Ukraine, is bringing Nord Stream 2 back into play.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has confirmed Moscow’s willingness to continue the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe. “Because we and the Gazprom group want to fulfill our obligations to our clients with whom we have long-term contracts,” said the Russian president at a plenary session at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on the Pacific. However, the transit contract ends at the turn of the year and Russia cannot force Ukraine to extend it.
The Europeans, in turn, who have influence over Kyiv, showed little interest in exerting pressure, Putin said. He also complained that Poland had closed the Yamal-Europe pipeline and that Germany was not connecting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline running through the Baltic Sea. In fact, in May 2022, Russia itself completely stopped gas supplies through the Yamal-Europe pipeline. The reason given at the time was that Poland refused to convert gas payments into rubles.
Nord Stream 2 is Putin’s constant topic
Putin has brought the Nord Stream 2 pipeline into play several times in the past, for example when Russia first throttled and then completely stopped deliveries via the sister pipeline Nord Stream 1 in 2022 due to alleged technical problems – weeks before it was severely damaged by an explosion.
Even though Putin portrayed Europe as the main loser in Vladivostok due to the drop in gas supplies from Russia, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom incurred massive losses last year. Attempts to replace the European gas market, which is lucrative for Russia, with Asia have not been particularly successful so far. Negotiations with China about building a second gas pipeline are stalling. The Chinese are reportedly not prepared to pay as high prices as the Europeans.
Source: Stern
