The lifting of economic sanctions would help to resolve the situation with a decrease in gas supplies via Nord Stream. This was announced on Wednesday, June 15, by a member of the German Bundestag committee on climate protection and energy, Steffen Kotre.
“Sanctions harm Germany, not Russia”
“The solution could be the lifting of the economic and energy embargo. This is the only way Germany can become a reliable importer again,” Kotre said in an interview with TASS.
Earlier on Wednesday, in an interview with Izvestia, the parliamentarian noted that the oil embargo imposed as part of the sixth package of EU sanctions is detrimental to the German economy. According to him, there are restrictions in production in Germany due to high energy prices.
On the same day, it was reported that gas prices in Europe for the first time since April 27 exceeded $1,300 per 1,000 cubic meters. m. After Gazprom reported on the reduction of supplies via the Nord Stream gas pipeline due to the forced shutdown of another Siemens gas turbine engine at the Portovaya compressor station (CS), prices increased by almost 25%.
Siemens, in turn, explained that it is not yet possible to return one of the gas turbines for Nord Stream after repairs to Germany from Montreal due to Canadian sanctions.
Commenting on the energy crisis in Europe, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on June 14 that as a result of anti-Russian sanctions, its scale will only increase. He added that even the main instigator of anti-Russian aggression, the United States of America, suffered.
Prior to this, on June 9, experts from the InfoTEK information and analytical center reported that Europe’s position in the gas market is steadily weakening, since, focusing on the replacement of coal energy with natural gas, the EU countries are increasingly dependent on imports.
The European Union approved the sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions on June 3. Restrictive measures include, among other things, a partial refusal of the member countries of the union to import oil from Russia. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the EU’s energy policy was short-sighted. The head of state added that the West’s attempt to belittle the importance of traditional energy sources has led to “underinvestment in the energy sector.”
Western countries decided to reduce their dependence on Russian energy resources against the backdrop of a special operation by the Russian Federation to protect Donbass. However, all this has already turned into economic problems in Europe, causing a sharp rise in fuel and food prices.