Russia’s hybrid war on Ukraine extends to new terrain as Gazprom cuts supply to Europe
The energy war between Russia and the west has suddenly exploded, threatening an all-out power struggle in which the west seeks to cap the price of Russian oil and the Kremlin cuts off the supply of gas to Europe.
The unpredictable dispute, in which both sides deploy unconventional weapons of economic warfare, shows the extent to which Russia’s hybrid war in Ukraine has been extended into new terrain. President Vladimir Putin is testing Europe’s real willingness to see the lights go out in defence of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas monopoly supplier, on Friday afternoon announced that during a routine maintenance check an oil leak had been discovered in the main gas turbines at compressors on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which takes gas from Siberia into northern Germany via the Baltic Sea. Gazprom said the leak would take an indefinite amount of time to fix, after innumerable other unusually prolonged breaks for maintenance.
The Russian announcement – seen in the west as a piece of transparent blackmail – came hours after the G7 finance ministers pressed ahead with an elaborate plan, first outlined by the US at the G7 leaders summit in June, to put a cap on Russian oil prices. The aim is to introduce the cap as early as December, depriving Putin of the resources he needs to fund the war past the winter. Until now, Gazprom had hit a sweet spot of dwindling European demand for Russian energy not leading to a fall in revenue, due to the rise in global energy prices.
The news in the G7 finance ministers announcement was that the US had managed to get a previously sceptical Germany to examine the proposal in earnest.
As soon as the G7 leaders meeting ended in June, senior US officials came to London
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