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Added on the 20/07/2022 16:40:29 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Images show the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, through which a third of Russian gas supplies passes to reach the EU. Closed since 11 July for a 10-day routine maintenance, Europeans fear that Moscow won't turn the tap back on Thursday 21 July. In previous weeks, Russia had already cut 60% of its gas deliveries via the pipeline. The 1,224-kilometre (760-mile) long Nord Stream 1 is a system of twin pipelines running under the Baltic Sea, stretching from Russia's Vyborg to Lubmin in northeastern Germany. From there, a network of pipelines transports the gas into the European grid. IMAGES of the pipeline Nord Stream 1
The European Commission urges EU countries to reduce their demand for natural gas by 15 percent over the coming winter months to overcome Russia's energy supply "blackmail". SOUNDBITE
In Luxembourg, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner says it is not yet possible for the EU to cut Russian gas imports as a sanction against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. SOUNDBITE
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accuses China of "fuelling" Russia's invasion of Ukraine through the transfers of dual use materials and weapons components from Chinese businesses to Russia for use in Moscow's military expansion. "If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can't on the other hand be fuelling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War," Blinken tells a press conference after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers on the Italian island of Capri where he had urged urged his European counterparts to increase pressure on Beijing. SOUNDBITE
Sweden joining NATO shows Russian President Vladimir Putin "failed" in his Ukrainian war strategy of weakening the alliance, its chief Jens Stoltenberg says. The Kremlin's invasion not only prompted formerly non-aligned nations Sweden and Finland to come under NATO's defence umbrella, but now "Ukraine is closer to NATO membership than ever before," Stoltenberg adds. SOUNDBITE
US President Joe Biden says during his State of the Union address that Ukraine is capable of stopping Putin if the US provides Kyiv the "weapons it needs to defend itself." SOUNDBITE