Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Monday that Russia could do little to help with urgent repairs to equipment on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.

Last week, Russia cut gas supplies through Nord Stream 1, its main pipeline to Europe, to just 20% capacity, claiming that a turbine sent to Canada for maintenance had not yet returned and that other equipment They also needed repair.

This was a deepening of the dispute in which Moscow has cited turbine problems as a reason for cutting off gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

“There are breakdowns that require urgent repairs and there are certain artificial difficulties that were caused by sanctions,” Peskov said.

“This situation needs fixing and Russia has little capacity to help here,” he added.

Germany’s Siemens Energy, the manufacturer, has said it had no access to the turbines on site and had not received any reports of damage from Gazprom, so it had to assume the turbines were operating normally.

In a separate statement on Monday, Russia’s state gas company Gazprom said its gas output was down 12% to 262.4 billion cubic meters from January to July, while exports to non-Community of States countries Independents fell 35% compared to the same period of the previous year.

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