The gas is flowing again – but for how long? Russia continues to be unpredictable. But Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is hinting at a solution. Not without ulterior motives, of course.
Now, of course, you can argue about what Markus Söder actually wants to say. Some see in his numerous statements on just as many topics, others one. Either way, the CSU leader, who wants to win a state election in Bavaria next year, is attracting attention these days with committed criticism of the federal government, which often ends in pithy headlines.
With all the expansive general criticism, no matter how demonstrative it may be, an interesting question that the Bavarian Prime Minister raised while tirelessly banging on the traffic light has been overlooked: “Would the federal government be prepared if Vladimir Putin declared that the repair of Nord Stream 1 takes longer and he’s offering to use Nord Stream 2 for that?”
So Söder was quoted by the a few days ago. As if he saw something coming.
Gas is flowing again through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, . But for how much longer? As early as tomorrow, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin could turn off the gas tap again, throttle delivery volumes again, possibly even stop them altogether. The gas may flow again, but the crisis remains – and with it the anxious shivering ahead of next winter.
The head of the Kremlin should like that, . But the Russian President obviously sees the gas shortage in Europe he is fueling as an opportunity to push through a project that was put on hold as a result of the sanctions: Nord Stream 2.
A tempting offer?
The pipeline has been built since 2021, but is not in operation. The approval process for the line was suspended by Germany in the wake of the Russian attack on Ukraine. Now that every cubic meter of gas could make the difference in how Germany gets through the winter, Putin is trying to pitch the commissioning of the €10 billion project as a solution to all the problems.
Moscow repeats its narrative that the throttling of the pipeline through Nord Stream 1 is solely due to a missing turbine. This should now be on the way to Russia, but there is no reason to breathe a sigh of relief, at least that’s how Putin wants it to be understood.
If Russia does not receive the repaired turbine back in time, the daily throughput capacity of the pipeline could fall further at the end of July due to the need to repair “another unit”. And then pushed afterwards: “We still have a finished route – that’s Nord Stream 2. We can put it into operation.”
What Putin is trying to portray as a tempting offer is being denied by politicians from the Ampel parties. “The issue of Nord Stream 2 has been settled for a good reason – and this reason is in the Kremlin,” said FDP parliamentary group leader Lukas Köhler. “There is nothing more to say about Putin’s latest show.” For Nina Scheer, energy policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the question does not arise “insofar as there are no technical reasons against the use of Nord Stream 1 from a European perspective with the return of the turbine.”
“Apparently he wants to blackmail the commissioning of Nord Stream 2”
The questionable offer fits the Kremlin’s strategy. Russian President Vladimir Putin counts fear-mongering among his arsenal of weapons, attempts to arouse covetousness (whether in or ) and threatening gestures () to undermine the determination of the countries that stand by Ukraine in the fight against Russia and to undermine their priorities move. With initial success: Germany feels shivering about concerns about rising (energy) prices. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned on Thursday that there should be no gas from Russia.
“Apparently he wants to blackmail the commissioning of Nord Stream 2,” said energy economist Claudia Kemfert (RND) against this background. “The fact that the Kremlin chief Putin is now talking about Nord Stream 2 shows that Nord Stream 1 was never about technical reasons, but about purely political reasons,” said the head of the Energy, Transport, Environment department at the German Institute for Economic Research ( DIW) in Berlin. She warns against putting it into operation if it would only further increase dependence on Russia. The Russian president is concerned with “being able to continue using gas as a political weapon. And he is currently doing that very intensively.”
In addition, the offer fits the Russian narrative that it is not Moscow but the Europeans that are responsible for “this story,” as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated on Wednesday, one day before the scheduled end of the maintenance work: “They want to break away from the good guys Release relationships that have grown over many decades in the fields of energy, logistics or transport communication”. “There you go! That’s your choice.” Blame yourself, that’s obviously the message.
It is unlikely that Nord Stream 2 could go into operation. “This pipeline is not connected to the grid,” said SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert on Thursday morning. “A clear political decision was made on Nord Stream 2.” Kühnert pointed out that there is currently no lack of pipeline capacity, but rather of delivery quantities – and this problem would not be solved by the second gas pipeline. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen EU has also rejected the Russian President’s considerations about commissioning. “I want to be very clear here: Nord Stream 2 is not even certified and not at all operational”, .
In this respect, there is apparently a clear answer to the question raised by Bavaria’s Prime Minister Söder. It reads: No, Nord Stream 2 is not an option.
Source: Stern
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