Russia halves major pipeline’s natural gas supply to Europe

Russia’s Gazprom is halving the amount of natural gas flowing through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe to 20% of capacity. It’s the latest Nord Stream 1 reduction that Russia blames on technical problems but Germany calls a political move to sow uncertainty and push up prices amid the war in Ukraine.

The Russian state-controlled energy giant announced Monday that it would slash flows on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that runs to Germany because of equipment repairs. It’s raised new fears that Russia could completely cut off gas that is used to power industry, generate electricity and heat homes to try to gain political leverage over Europe as it tries to bolster its storage levels for winter.

Data on the Nord Stream website and the head of Germany’s network regulator, Klaus Mueller, confirmed the reduction.

“Gas is now a part of Russian foreign policy and possibly Russian war strategy,” Mueller tells Deutschlandfunk radio.