The USA withdrew from the race. Who decides the fate of Nord Stream 2

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance commented to the Prime Agency on the impact of possible restricting the transit of Russian gas through Belarus on the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that after the incident with the Ryanair plane, no sanctions can be ruled out, including those concerning the transit of Russian gas through Belarus. Britain has previously said the same thing.

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, is also not sure that the EU will really restrict gas transit through Belarus, since in this case the main supporters of the "anti-Lukashenko" course in Europe - Lithuania and Poland - will suffer.

Last year, transit through Belarus in the direction of Poland amounted to 38.9 billion cubic meters, in the direction of Lithuania - 3.2 billion cubic meters (of which, however, 2.3 billion cubic meters were transit for the Kaliningrad region). The loss of these volumes will lead to a loss of income for gas transmission operators in these countries, and then to an increase in prices for end consumers.

“Now we are observing a picture atypical for the EU countries - the TTF gas prices exceed $ 260 per thousand cubic meters, coming close to the records of three years ago. The ban on transit through Belarus, through which 25-26% of all Russian gas supplies to the EU pass, can lead to a jump in prices,"- the expert said.