the leaks of the Nord Stream are an act of “international terrorism”

“The ball is in the EU’s court” if it wants the gas supply, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. The president pressures the West to relax the sanctions against Moscow in exchange for resuming the flow of hydrocarbons, whose reduction triggers prices.

Within the framework of the Russian Energy Week international forum, which takes place in Moscow, Putin assured on October 12 that he is willing to restore the gas supply to Europe through a link that remains intact from the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, bound for Germany under the Baltic Sea.

But the Kremlin leader is demanding to lift the cap on the price of Russian oil that the West is demanding in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“If oil prices from Russia or other countries are capped and artificial price caps are introduced, it will inevitably worsen the investment climate in the global energy sector and then lead to global scarcity of energy resources and their cost will rise. This, I repeat , will hit the poorest states,” he challenged.

The Russian president seems to have the ace up his sleeve after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) gave him a boost last week by announcing that he will reduce crude oil production, despite intense lobbying by the United States to avoid it. The measure puts the West on the ropes, since it would worsen the current energy crisis that triggers inflation.

“We will not provide energy resources to countries that cap their prices … those that prefer cheat tricks and shameless blackmail to trade associations and market schemes. We have been living in that political environment for decades, I mean that we will not inflict losses on ourselves,” the Kremlin leader warned.

During his speech, the Russian president again accused the United States of being behind the explosions that destroyed both links of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of the two links of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, causing a massive gas leak and leaving them out of service.

“There is no doubt that the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines is an international terrorist attack aimed at destroying the energy supply,” Putin said.

However, Washington and the EU point to Moscow for causing “sabotage” and using it as another weapon of war in an attempt to repel international opposition to the conflict that Putin ordered against its neighboring country on February 24.

Far from acknowledging responsibilities for the conflict he launched, Putin assured that his government has nothing to do with the extremely high energy prices that Europeans face in the winter. Instead, he blamed the West for fueling a global energy crisis, following the sanctions he issued against it.

“Russia is one of the key players in the world energy market. In terms of oil and gas production, electricity generation and coal production, our country is among the leaders. Despite the sanctions and the sabotage of the infrastructure, we do not intend to give up our position (…) Russia’s oil production has already overcome the recession and is even slightly higher than last year’s level. We plan that, until 2025, exports and total oil production in our country will remain above the current level,” he said.

Germany rejects Russian offer to resume gas flow via Nord Stream 2

Putin’s pressure-tinged proposal was quickly rejected by Berlin.

Germany froze the Nord Stream project 2 days before Russia sent troops to Ukraine and a German government spokesman ruled out this Wednesday, October 12, taking the hydrocarbon through that route.

Following the Russian leader’s statement, German officials countered that Moscow stopped supplies via Nord Stream 1 as a political tactic and questioned why supplies via Nord Stream 2 would now be more reliable.

In the midst of his challenging proposal, Putin would also show the urgency to strengthen his finances in the face of the sanctions that hit his main source of income.

The president insisted on this when he raised the idea of ​​creating an alternative European gas hub through Turkey.

“We could move the volumes lost along the Nord Stream along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea region and thus make the main routes for the supply of our fuel, our natural gas to Europe through Turkey,” exposed.

Meanwhile, EU energy ministers met in Prague to try to agree on new measures to deal with the crisis.

Most of the 27-nation bloc say they want a cap on gasoline prices, but disagree on how the measure would be carried out.

Nations such as Germany continue to oppose it, arguing that there is a risk of cutting off supply. Berlin and the Netherlands presented their own proposals before the meeting in the Czech capital. Among them, a new reference price for liquefied natural gas, stricter targets to save gas and negotiating lower costs with other suppliers such as Norway.

Concerns about the security of energy supply increased on October 12 when a leak in Poland, in the Druzhba pipeline that transports gas from Russia, reduced the flow of oil to Germany.

Warsaw said the leak was likely caused by an accident, but it comes just as EU nations seek to wean themselves off Russian energy.

NATO is committed to strengthening Ukraine’s defense systems

The member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) recommitted themselves to provide solid and lasting military assistance to the Army of the attacked country, during a meeting in Brussels.

The statement comes after the Kremlin reinforced its campaign in recent days with new attacks that affected the civilian population in cities such as kyiv, the capital, and Zaporizhia, recently annexed by Moscow in a series of referendums considered illegal by most. of the international community.

“I welcome Germany’s recent announcement and also the delivery of German air defense systems to Ukraine. The horrific and indiscriminate attacks on Ukrainian cities, civilians killed, critical civilian infrastructure destroyed, and the attacks on the energy system, energy infrastructure, (They are) serious as we head into winter, so all of this demonstrates the urgent need to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

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Hours earlier, the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, together with his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, opened the meeting of more than 50 countries that condemned the deadly missile attacks ordered by President Vladimir Putin, against “targets”. for non-military purposes” throughout Ukraine.

“The entire world has just seen once again the malice and cruelty of Putin’s chosen war, rooted in aggression and waged with a profound disregard for the rules of war,” Austin said.

Russia attacks seven Ukrainian regions; they restore power at the Zaporizhia plant

Russian troops returned to attack Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine, and its surroundings overnight, launching at least seven S-300 missiles. Two of them hit a regional center district and another five hit the suburbs, authorities said.

In the city of Avdiivka alone, belonging to the Donetsk province, in the east of the Ukrainian territory, at least seven people were killed and eight were injured in an attack by Moscow on a crowded market, reported the governor of the region, Pavlo Kyrylenko.

“There is no military logic to such bombing, just an unbridled desire to kill as many of our people as possible and intimidate others,” the official said.

After weeks of setbacks for Russian troops on the ground, after Ukrainian forces recaptured large swathes of towns and cities, especially in the north of the country, Putin has renewed orders for tactics that escalate the conflict.

However, the Kremlin leader accused kyiv’s defenses of carrying out a “terrorist attack” after a strong explosion over the weekend destroyed part of the only bridge connecting Russian territory with the Crimean peninsula in the south. of Ukraine, and annexed by Moscow in 2014.

For this accusation, at least eight people were arrested in the last few hours. Among them, five Russian citizens, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

kyiv rejects Moscow’s remarks. “All the activity of the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) and the Investigative Committee is nonsense,” Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence press officer, told local radio.

Amid increased aggression on the ground, including around the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in the south of the country, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that external power to the facility was restored.

Shortly before, the director general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, warned that the largest nuclear plant in Europe had lost, for the second time in five days, all the electrical connection from the outside necessary for vital safety systems.

Despite the resumption, the risk remains latent in the face of intense bombing in the vicinity of the plant managed by Ukrainian experts, but controlled by Russian troops.

With Reuters, AP, EFE and local media