Kremlin says halt to Russian gas supplies caused by Western sanctions The Kremlin on Monday assured that the halting of Russian gas supplies to Germany via the strategic Nord Stream gas pipeline was the sole fault Westerners, because their sanctions prevent the maintenance of gas infrastructures. “The pumping problems [de gaz] emerged because of Western state sanctions. There is no other reason for these problems,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The Russian giant Gazprom announced on Friday evening that the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was to resume service on Saturday after maintenance, would finally be “completely” stopped until the repair of a turbine in this vital pipeline for the supply of Europeans. Monday morning, the price of natural gas exploded, after the announcement of the complete shutdown of the gas pipeline. Around 11 a.m. (Paris time), the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) futures contract, the European market reference, was trading at 278.5 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), soaring by nearly 30%, i.e. its largest single-session rise since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.