Russia’s halt on gas supplies tightens energy screws on Europe

Russia halted gas supplies via Europe’s key supply route on Wednesday, intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospects of recession and energy rationing in some of the region’s richest countries.

European governments fear Moscow could extend the outage in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed after it invaded Ukraine and have accused Russia of using energy supplies as a “weapon of war”. Moscow denies doing this and has cited technical reasons for supply cuts.

Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom said Nord Stream 1, the biggest pipeline carrying gas to its top customer Germany, will be out for maintenance between 0100 GMT on Aug. 31 and 0100 GMT on Sept. 3.