After five days of no natural gas delivered to the EU bloc from Nord Stream 1, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak emphasized that the West had no one to blame but themselves. Today on Rossiya 1 TV channel, he told them “not to lay the bloc’s leaders’ fault at Russia’s door.… Right now, the entire problem lies precisely on that side, because all the conditions of the repair contract have been completely violated, along with the terms of shipping of the equipment.”
The pipeline was completely shut down on Aug. 31 for a scheduled three-day maintenance. After an engine oil leak was reported in a turbine, Gazprom announced on Sept. 2 that shipments would not be resuming on schedule, and no details were provided as to when or whether they would resume. Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller has been warning repeatedly that the sanctions are preventing Germany’s Siemens Energy from performing their normal maintenance of the pipeline’s equipment—but evidently to deaf ears.
Western politicians have been hoisted on their own petard. First, they sanctimoniously refused deliveries from the newly constructed Nord Stream 2. Then, Canada’s sanctions against Russia interrupted the normal scheduled maintenance of gas turbines from being returned to Germany for Nord Stream 1. Consequently, the pipeline in June was down to 40% of its capacity. Then in July, the remaining Nord Stream 1 turbines required overhaul, dropping the supply of natural gas down to 20% of capacity.
There are real consequences to stupidity.
