Russia Stops Gas Supplies To Europe Via Nord Stream 1

Russia has halted gas supplies to Europe via the major pipeline, Nord Stream 1, saying it needs repairs. Russian energy giant Gazprom said that restrictions on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will continue for the next three days.

Russia has already significantly reduced gas exports through the pipeline. It rejects accusations that it is using energy supplies as a way to punish Western countries for imposing sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

Nord Stream 1 extends 1,200 kilometers under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near Saint Petersburg to northeastern Germany. Opened in 2011, it can send a maximum of 170 million cubic meters of gas per day from Russia to Germany.

The pipeline was recently shut down for 10 days in July for maintenance, according to Russia, and is still operating at only 20 percent due to, what Russia says, poor equipment.

The head of Germany's power grid regulator said the country would be able to adapt if Russia resumed deliveries in the coming days.

"I suppose we will be able to deal with it," Klaus Muller told Reuters. "I am confident that Russia will return to (level) 20 percent on Saturday, but no one can be certain."

European leaders fear Russia will extend the outage, in order to raise gas prices, which have already increased by 400 percent.

A sharp rise in the cost of living threatens to trigger a crisis during the winter months, and this could force governments to spend billions to ease the burden.

On Tuesday, French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher accused Russia of "using gas as a weapon of war."

Its suspension came after Gazprom said it would suspend gas shipments to French energy company Engie.

But a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the accusations, insisting that Western sanctions had caused the outages by damaging Russian infrastructure.

He stressed that the "technological problems" caused by Western sanctions are the only thing that prevents Russia from supplying gas through the pipeline, without specifying what those problems are.

The last dispute was over a turbine that arrived in Germany after it was repaired in Canada and Russia refused to take it back, arguing that it was subject to Western sanctions. But Germany denies this.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said earlier this month that the pipeline was operating at full capacity, adding that there were no technical problems as Russia claimed.

Earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to intervene in energy markets, telling a conference in Slovenia that markets were "no longer suitable for the purpose".

"We need a new market model for electricity that really works and restores balance," she added.

Prior to the conflict, Germany had backed the €10 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline - which runs parallel to Nord Stream - but halted operations after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.

Last week, the BBC revealed that Russia is burning an estimated $10 million worth of gas per day at a facility near the Finnish border.