(Mülheim an der Ruhr) Olaf Scholz on Wednesday accused Russia of being responsible for blocking the delivery of a turbine currently in Germany, without which the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that supplies gas to Europe cannot, according to Moscow , operate normally.
Posted at 6:24 a.m.
“There is no reason that would prevent the delivery from taking place”, affirmed the German chancellor while Russia cut the volume of its gas deliveries arguing for the need for this turbine.
Moscow just has to “provide the necessary customs information for its transport to Russia”, he said during a visit to the Siemens factory in Mühlheim an der Ruhr (west) where this turbine is located.
Russia reduced the volume of its deliveries in June and July, saying that the gas pipeline could not function normally without a turbine being repaired in Canada and which had not returned to Russia because of the sanctions imposed by the West on the following the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Germany and Canada have agreed to bring the equipment back to Russia, but the turbine has yet to reach its final destination.
Berlin has more than once estimated in recent days that it was only a “pretext” and a “political” decision to influence Westerners in the context of the Ukraine war.
For Mr. Scholz, Moscow also sends a “complicated message” to the whole world by casting doubts on its will to “keep up with its commitments” in the future.
The Nord Stream gas pipeline, with a capacity according to Gazprom of 167 million m3 daily newspapers, connects Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The tube is strategic for gas supplies to Europeans, especially Germans, who are highly dependent on Russian energy resources.
Westerners accuse Moscow of using the energy weapon in retaliation for the sanctions adopted after the offensive against Ukraine.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, says that the sanctions are at the origin of technical problems on the gas infrastructure and that Europe therefore suffers from the measures that it imposes on Russia.