Moscow/Berlin: Russia announced the closure of the ‘Nord Stream 1’ fuel pipeline supplying natural gas to European countries. Russia informed that the pipeline would remain closed for repairs and maintenance for 10 days from Monday. Last month itself, Russia reduced the gas supplied to Europe through this pipeline by 60%. At the same time, it was revealed that gas supply to France, Italy and Austria also had been curtailed. The European countries have become restless given the consistent Russian steps to reduce the gas supply for the last two months.
Last month, Russia cut down the gas supplied to Germany, a leading European country, citing technical problems. After that, the German government made frantic efforts, disregarding the Ukrainian opposition, to resolve the technical issues cited by Russia. The German government pleaded with the Canadian government and got concessions for Russia from sanctions. But Russia has taken action to jolt Europe without attaching too much importance to these German efforts.
‘Nord Stream 1’, operational for the last ten years, is the longest fuel pipeline in the world. The 1,200 kilometres long pipeline supplies a whopping 1.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to Europe. Along with the Russian companies, German, French and Dutch companies also have partnerships in this pipeline, which runs from Vyborg in Russia to Lubmin in Germany. 
Fuel pipeline Nord Stream 2’ has been constructed to increase the gas supply to Europe. But the German government denied permission for the pipeline.
Russia started reducing the quantities of gas supplied to Europe before the closure of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Therefore, the European countries do not have much of gas reserves. European leaders and the industry sector indicate that if Russia stopped the gas supply in this scenario, there would be a major crisis in Europe. German Commerce Minister Robert Habeck feared that the Russian gas supplies may never restart. Whereas, Florent Menegaux, Chief of Michelin company in France, said that the French industry sector has activated systems functioning on oil and coal.
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