Berlin keeps blaming the crisis on Russia, with the US trying to take advantage of the situation
Germany has been struggling to meet its energy needs for around a year as it seeks to reduce what it calls a dependence on Russian energy imports. Berlin’s officials still blame the troubles their nation faces on Moscow and its alleged “energy war” against the West.
On Friday, an energy transition minister of the German northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, Tobias Goldschmidt, accused Moscow of “starting an energy war” and “reducing gas supplies”. Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who repeatedly stated that energy “independence” from Russia was worth all the troubles, called massive energy imports from the country a “big mistake” at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this week.
In June 2022, Russia’s energy giant Gazprom reduced gas flows through Nord Stream 1 – a major pipeline delivering natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea – first by 40% and then by 60%.
The decision was prompted by technical issues as Germany’s Siemens company did not return a turbine for gas-pumping units at a Nord Stream 1 compressor station in time. Gazprom then said it had to further reduce gas supply to 20% of the total capacity over the summer as four out of five turbines at the station required maintenance. Siemens could not provide the turbine due to the expansive sanctions regime the US and the EU introduced against Russia, Gazprom added.
Siemens accused Gazprom of “lying” but still admitted that only one out of five turbines needed for the gas flow was operational in August 2022.