BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2021) Annalena Baerbock, a German election candidate and leader of the Greens party, has accused Russia of not doing enough to help energy-strapped Europe fill its gas storage.
Baerbock, who has long demanded that Germany drop the Nord Stream 2 gas project, told the RND group of newspapers that Russia wants to "increase political pressure to speed up the approval process for Nord Stream 2 and put the pipeline into operation."
She said that the German government should send a message to Moscow that "Russia must stick to its promises and supply enough gas through the existing pipelines, like it used to."
The German energy ministry's spokeswoman, Suzanne Ungrad, said on Wednesday that Russia was fulfilling existing supply deals and did not disregard any contracts.
Gas prices skyrocketed to 60-65 Euros ($70-76) per megawatt/hour, almost triple the average seen in the past years. Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, blamed gas shortages on the recovering demand, longer heating periods and slumping wind power generation.
