Canada will allow the delivery of a key component to help deliver Russian gas to Germany, Ottawa announced overnight, despite appeals from Ukraine to hold off on returning the equipment.
The question of whether to grant an exception to sanctions on Russia in order to fix the Nord Stream 1 pipeline saw Canada torn between the demands of Germany, which remains dependent on Russian fuel, and Ukraine’s pleas to cut Russian revenue streams.
Canada will grant a “time-limited and revocable permit” so Siemens can deliver turbines to Germany following their maintenance in Montreal, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced.
He cited threats to the German economy and risks that Germans will be “unable to heat their homes as winter approaches” without the gas supply.
Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom had blamed the delayed return of the turbines for a recent 40 percent reduction in gas deliveries through the pipeline.
Ukrainian officials sharply disputed this assessment, however, arguing that Russia was free to route its gas through Ukraine instead. Energy Minister German Galushchenko urged the Canadian government not to exempt the component from sanctions last month, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.
Yet German politicians expressed increasing alarm about the prospect that Moscow would use the missing equipment as an excuse to throttle gas supplies. On Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz cheered the decision by “our Canadian friends and allies,” German media reported.
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