France’s claim: Russia uses gas as a weapon of war.
Following the action of the Russian Gazprom company in cutting off the gas exported to a large French company, the government of Paris claimed that Moscow is using the issue of energy export as a “weapon of war”.
Russia’s “Gazprom” announced that it will reduce the supply of gas to the French company “Engie”, France verbally attacked Russia, accusing this country of using the energy supply flow as a “war weapon”.
According to Reuters news agency, Gazprom also announced that it will shut down its main gas pipeline to Germany for three days this week.
European governments have recently been trying to coordinate a response to sharp increases in energy costs for businesses and homes across the continent and to fill up their energy storage facilities in preparation for the winter peak demand period.
Western countries are worried that Moscow is deliberately trying to weaken European opposition to its attack on Ukraine by raising gas prices in Europe, but Moscow denies this charge.
The “Nord Stream 1” gas pipeline, which transports the main flow of Russian gas to Europe, has been at the center of the dispute. In recent days, Europe has experienced more pressure in the field of energy supply following the Gazprom company’s action in shutting down the flow of this pipeline for maintenance from Wednesday last week to early Saturday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that technical issues caused by Western sanctions against Russia were the only obstacle to the supply of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
“Russia is clearly using the issue of gas as a weapon of war, and we must prepare ourselves for the worst-case scenario, a complete cutoff of the gas flow,” French energy transition minister Annis Panier-Ronache said on Tuesday.
The large French company “Engie” announced today that it has started receiving a smaller volume of gas from Gazprom due to a dispute between the parties over some contracts.
Gas imports from Russia account for about 17% of France’s gas consumption, which is less than some of its neighbors.
In a news conference, in response to a question about whether there is a guarantee for Gazprom’s action in resuming gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Peskov said: There is a guarantee that, except for the technical issues caused by the sanctions, nothing else Do not disrupt the flow of gas supply.
