
Russia halted gas supplies via a major pipeline to Europe on Wednesday, intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospects of recession and energy rationing in some of the region's richest countries.
The outage for maintenance on Nord Stream 1 means that no gas will flow to Germany between 0100 GMT on Aug. 31 and 0100 GMT on Sept. 3, according to Russian state energy giant Gazprom.