Gas hysteria in Germany has scared the whole of Europe

Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Vzglyad business newspaper on the Germany's reaction to the reduction in Russian gas supplies via the Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline.

Germany's energy situation remains "serious and tense" following a decline in gas supplies from Russia, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck told ZDF. He blames Gazprom for the crisis. “This is a kind of arm wrestling. In the past, Russia had a “longer hand” first, but this does not mean that we cannot get a “stronger hand” through the efforts made,” Khabek said. At the same time, he points to a difficult situation with filling storage facilities for the winter - they are 57% full, and 90% are needed.

“The hysteria surrounding the reduction in the volume of gas pumped through Nord Stream 1 is, in fact, far-fetched. There is a specific technical issue where the German company Siemens is unable to meet its maintenance obligations due to Canadian sanctions. We should not inflate the political hype, but solve a specific problem,” Aleksey Gromov says.

According to him, there is a fairly common practice when the same United States introduces so-called exceptions to sanctions restrictions (export licenses) for specific goods and services, if they are urgently needed, for example, for the same US economy. For example, such an exception to the sanctions was made for the supply of mineral fertilizers from Russia to the States. “Therefore, this technical issue should be resolved by Siemens with the Canadian authorities with the support of the German authorities,” Gromov believes.