The Kremlin plans to keep vital gas flows to Europe at a minimum while standoff over Ukraine continues. At the same time, he will increase pressure on the European Union due to its tough sanctions position.. Bloomberg writes about this, citing its own sources close to the Kremlin..

If the pressure drags on into the winter, the European continent, traditionally Russia's largest export market, could be critically short of fuel..

Publicly, Russia claims that technical problems, in particular, the lack of turbines, forced it to cut deliveries.. But in reality, the Kremlin is using disruptions in Nord Stream — its main vehicle for supplying Europe with gas — as leverage to influence leaders there to revise their painful sanctions and reduce support for Kyiv.. This, according to Bloomberg, was reported by knowledgeable people on condition of anonymity..

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They expect the Kremlin and state-owned monopoly Gazprom to continue to find reasons to restrict supplies, preventing European customers from building up stocks to meet winter demand..

EU officials are already warning of severe economic disruption if supplies do not resume and are urging consumers to reduce their use of vital fuel.

The gas dispute is the latest rate hike in the crisis over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and speaks to the Kremlin's willingness to forego tens of billions of dollars in export revenues in order to achieve its geopolitical goals..

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According to a person familiar with the situation, Gazprom has analyzed the possible impact of the shutdown and found ways to offset its financial losses through a sharp increase in prices this year..

Privately, a Kremlin interlocutor expressed surprise that President Vladimir Putin has still not stopped the gas supply, given the volume of European sanctions against Russia and the supply of weapons to Ukraine.. Russia is using its energy leverage as a political tool in response to sanctions, he said, and will continue to do so..

As reported, Putin continues gas blackmail and demands to unblock exports in exchange for lifting sanctions..

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On July 11, the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom announced the shutdown of the turbine at the Portovaya compressor station at the beginning of the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the reduction in gas pumping from 67 to 33 million cubic meters per day.

Germany turned to Canada with a request to transfer the sanctioned Siemens turbine to the Russian Federation in order to deprive Moscow of arguments. Despite the denial of Ukraine, Ottawa agreed to give the turbine.

However, the turbine, which the Russian Federation demanded back, got stuck in Germany due to Moscow's refusal to approve its transportation..

German Economy Minister Robert Gabeck believes that Russia has no technical reasons to limit gas supplies via the Nord Stream gas pipeline. And what Moscow is doing is a trade war.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia unleashed a gas war against Europe. Its goal is to make it as difficult as possible for countries to prepare for winter..