Kremlin Says European Sanctions Led to Suspension of Nord Stream

The trans-Baltic pipeline, which delivers tens of billions of cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to Germany each year, was shut down for three days early Wednesday morning for scheduled maintenance works at the Portovaya compressor station. Gas deliveries are expected to resume at 1 am GMT on September 3.

Europe's anti-Russian sanctions are responsible for the suspension of Nord Stream's operations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

"It was their own sanctions that brought the Europeans to this situation," Peskov said, speaking to reporters on Wednesday.

The spokesman indicated that Moscow and energy giant Gazprom "have been committed and remain committed to their obligations and contracts," but "simply cannot fulfill them at present because of the restrictions and sanctions imposed by the EU, the UK and by other countries."

Peskov clarified that only one of Nord Stream's six turbines is currently operational, with the rest awaiting repairs or unable to be launched due to legal clearance issues.

"Service maintenance of these turbines is carried out under British law. It is carried out by a division of Siemens that's situated in the UK and operates under British law. And you are aware of Britain's sanctions against our country," he said. "Without proper legal guarantees that these sanctions will not be extended, it is impossible to perform any manipulations with them. The Europeans have brought this situation to a head," Peskov said.

Nord Stream, which is presently the only remaining major route for Russian gas deliveries to Western Europe, saw its throughput slip dramatically this summer after Canadian authorities delayed the delivery of a Siemens turbine necessary for its operation.

Russia's other oil and gas pipelines to Europe have also faced problems thanks to restrictions by Brussels and individual European Union countries and their allies, with Ukraine recently turning off the taps of the massive Druzhba oil pipeline taking oil to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Separately, Polish authorities halted Yamal-Europe, a major Soviet-era pipeline network pumping gas to Europe, and put it in reverse flow, buying Russian-sourced gas from Germany instead. Finally, authorities in Berlin have indefinitely frozen Nord Stream 2 - a brand new $10.5 billion gas pipeline with the capacity to deliver up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe.

The reduction in Russian oil and gas deliveries to Europe has resulted in an unprecedented energy crisis across the EU and in Britain, with nations taking emergency measures to reduce energy consumption and searching for spare reserves of natural gas in Norway, the Middle East and Africa to prepare for winter. At the same time, Brussels, Washington and allied media have blamed Moscow for the crisis, accusing Russia of "using energy as a weapon" and of deploying it against the West as part of a "hybrid war" over Ukraine. Russian officials have denied these claims, and expressed readiness to continue penning new energy contracts with the Europeans, on the condition that nations which have been designated 'unfriendly' over their position on Ukraine pay for gas in rubles.