Energy infrastructure: Lavrov: USA also wants to have TurkStream switched off

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the USA of wanting to use Ukrainian drone attacks to shut down the TurkStream gas pipeline, which is important for energy supplies in Europe. The US wanted to pressure its “Ukrainian clients” to decommission TurkStream next after the explosions on the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline, Lavrov said in Moscow.

“I have a very firm conviction: the United States cannot use competition in any area,” Lavrov said at his big press conference at the start of the year. The reason for the statements was a drone attack on a gas compressor station for the TurkStream Black Sea pipeline in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the drones were shot down, but debris caused damage to a building and infrastructure, according to authorities. The “Russkaya” compressor station is a good 320 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian front line. The Kremlin had criticized this as terror against energy infrastructure.

With a view to the previously unsolved explosions of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022, Lavrov also criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). He “silently averted his eyes” and “didn’t dare make a peep” when the Nord Stream lines were blown up, the minister said. Russia accuses the USA of being behind the “terrorist attack”. Lavrov criticizes that the federal government in Berlin is bashfully ignoring this.

At the end of September 2022, the two gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 were damaged by several explosions. Nord Stream 2 was not yet in operation due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the subsequent political disputes; one of two strands is still intact. Several media outlets had reported that the trail of sabotage led to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that Kiev had anything to do with the blasts.