© Reuters
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US President Joe Biden discussed yesterday with the German Acting Chancellor Russia’s attempts to manipulate natural gas supplies for political reasons, the White House said, quoted by BTA.
Biden, who is in Rome for the G20 summit, stressed the importance of preventing Russia from “manipulating the flow of natural gas for harmful political purposes,” the statement said. It added that the two also discussed the situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier yesterday, the pipeline operator in Germany announced that it had stopped supplying Russian gas to parts of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which passes through Poland to Germany. Gazprom said the demands of European consumers were met yesterday.
Russia sends gas to Western Europe via several different routes, one of which is Yamal-Europe with a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters per year.
The shortage of natural gas has led to a sharp jump in the price of electricity in Europe, as in most countries of the continent electricity is produced from gas-powered capacity. In Bulgaria this percentage is about 10.
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