Gas problem is caused by the West: Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tuned into the Kremlin over Europe’s gas crisis. He blamed sanctions on Russia for Europe’s energy crisis on Tuesday.
Erdogan maintains good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the same time, he continues to try to remain neutral in the conflict.

“Europe’s behavior towards Putin, the sanctions they imposed forced Putin to say, willingly or unwillingly, ‘If you do this, I will do that,'” Erdoğan said. Putin is using everything and weapons he has. Unfortunately, natural gas is one of them.

Meanwhile, Russia has warned to completely stop gas supply to Europe. Moscow has said that gas will not be supplied to Europe unless the ban on them is completely lifted.

Gas is supplied from Russia to Europe through the Nord Stream-1 pipeline. Russia stopped gas supply to the pipeline for three days for maintenance. Moscow now blames the Western countries and says that they are completely stopping the supply of gas to Europe because of these countries. Asked whether Russia would restore gas supplies if sanctions were eased, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Of course.”

Meanwhile, fuel prices in Europe have risen since last Monday due to the fear of Russia’s gas supply being cut off. Gas prices in the Netherlands rose by up to 30 percent on Monday. UK gas prices up 35 per cent

Wholesale gas prices have seen wide fluctuations in recent weeks. Gas prices fell after Germany announced last week that its gas reserves were filling up faster than expected.

Europe has accused Russia of using gas as a weapon to blackmail European countries over the conflict in Ukraine.

Last Monday, Peskov said, due to sanctions imposed against several companies of western countries including Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, problems in gas supply have arisen. Apart from this, there is no problem in gas supply. Earlier, the Russian company Gazprom said that gas supply was stopped due to an oil leak in a turbine of the Nord Stream-1 pipeline.