At the request of Berlin, the Canadian government is planning to exempt the Gazprom turbine intended for the North Stream gas pipeline from sanctions as an exception. It was sent to Canada to be repaired, but later it became impossible to return the turbine due to sanctions against Russia. This was reported by the Reuters agency, citing anonymous sources.
“Gazprom”, citing the need for a turbine, has reduced the volume of gas supply to Germany through the “North Stream” gas pipeline by 40 percent.
The Minister of Economy of Germany told the Bloomberg agency that the turbine should be returned to Germany in order to transfer it to Russia.
“I will be the first to fight for further strengthening of the European Union’s sanctions package, but strong sanctions mean that they should cause more damage and pain to Russia and Putin than to our economy,” said German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
Sources in the Ukrainian government told Reuters that if Canada returns the Gazprom turbine, the Ukrainian authorities will turn to their European partners, asking them to review the approaches to the implementation of the sanctions regime.