A branch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was not damaged in the September 2022 explosion and is still operational, but German authorities have not allowed the restart of the pipeline for political reasons, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference after the BRICS summit.
"There is still a branch of the gas pipeline running under the Baltic Sea: Nord Stream 2. The German authorities only need to press the button and everything will be started. But they do not do so for political reasons" - TASS quoted President Putin.
According to the Russian President, the United States - Germany's main partner - "has created conditions that have forced entire sectors of the German economy to move out of the country".
“Because the authorities there create more favorable conditions for business, and the main source of energy is three times cheaper than in Europe, even four times cheaper,” the Russian leader explained.
Nord Stream 2 is a gas pipeline from Russia to Europe via the Baltic Sea. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has an input point in the Ust-Luga region of Leningrad Oblast, Russia and an output point in the Greifswald region of Germany. The length of this gas pipeline is more than 1,200 km.
The total capacity of the two branches of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was completed in September 2021 but has never been put into operation because Germany has not yet approved it.
In September 2022, the Nord Stream sabotage incident damaged two branches of the Nord Stream pipeline and one branch of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. To date, investigations have not found the perpetrators of the attack.
