US and allies blew up Nord Stream pipelines
Says Putin; EU to cut power use, levy energy companies
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday directly accused the United States and its allies of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.
"The sanctions were not enough for the Anglo-Saxons: they moved onto sabotage," Putin said. "It is hard to believe but it is a fact that they organised the blasts on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines."
"They began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure," Putin said. "It is clear to everyone who benefits from this. Of course, he who benefits did it."
A sharp drop in pressure on both pipelines was registered on Sept. 26 and seismologists detected explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about who might have sabotaged one of Russia's most important energy corridors.
The European Union said it suspected sabotage caused the damage to the Gazprom-led GAZP.MM Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in Swedish and Danish waters. The White House has dismissed Russian allegations it was behind the incidents.
Russia's top spy said that Moscow had intelligence indicating that the West was behind what he said was a "terrorist act" against the pipelines.
Meanwhile, EU ministers yesterday agreed cuts to peak-hour power consumption and windfall levies on energy companies in an urgent effort to bring down sky-high energy prices.
The decision, announced by the Czech Republic in its role holding the EU presidency, aims to mitigate energy costs sent soaring by Russia's war in Ukraine and as the northern hemisphere winter looms.
European households and businesses are already staggering under surging energy bills, fuelling record inflation that in the eurozone has hit 10 percent.
Many EU countries have deployed smaller-scale national measures to tackle the looming energy crisis, but several demanded European-level concertation, in part to clamp down on energy-buying competition between EU peers.
The two measures adopted were proposed by the European Commission. The EU executive believes it can raise 140 billion euros from the levies on non-gas electricity producers and on energy majors that are raking in outsized profits from the global energy demand.