Putin could come to regret his gas game with Europe

Russian president Vladimir Putin has always enjoyed trolling European leaders. As relations between Moscow and Berlin deteriorate over reduced natural gas supplies and Ukraine-related sanctions, Putin is now brazenly gaslighting his German counterpart, chancellor Olaf Scholz. But it’s a move he could come to regret.

Putin suggested this week that Germany should give the shelved Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline the go ahead to restore gas flows to normal levels. The amount of Russian gas flowing into Germany along the operational Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea is capped at 67 million cubic metres per day (MMcm/d), or about 40 per cent of its technical capacity. Russia claims this is due to a technical fault that could not be fixed under sanctions. Few take this excuse at face value.

Putin says certifying the newly-built but inoperative second phase of Nord Stream would offer a workaround solution. The Russian leader told journalists in Tehran this week that he raised the issue of Nord Stream 2 with Scholz about two months ago.