Russia is using its dominance of the European oil and gas market, where it accounts for 40% of EU gas consumption, to attempt to reduce support for Ukraine.
To ramp up that pressure ahead of the winter, Russia has closed off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany from August 31 to September 3 – ostensibly for maintenance, but probably as an attempt to seek concessions from Brussels over sanctions relief. Meanwhile the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer Nadhim Zahawi was due to meet the US treasury secretary Janet Yellen on August 31 with a plea for the US to step up energy exports to help with the crisis.
As European gas prices soar, Russia has burnt off gas, rather than send it through its European pipelines. For instance, a gas plant near the Finnish border has been burning an estimated $10 million (£8 million) worth of gas daily since August 27.
