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Politics

Russia Signals Europe Won’t Get Extra Gas Without Nord Stream 2

  • Kremlin seeks swift approval for pipeline in return for gas
  • Gazprom preparing new pipeline for use, limiting other routes
The Gazprom Slavyanskaya compressor station, the starting point of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, in Ust-Luga, Russia.

The Gazprom Slavyanskaya compressor station, the starting point of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, in Ust-Luga, Russia.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Russia is signaling that it won’t go out of its way to offer European consumers extra gas to ease the current energy crisis unless it gets something in return: regulatory approval to start shipments through the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

In exchange for upping supplies, Russia wants to get German and European Union approval to begin using the pipeline to Europe, according to people close to state-run gas giant Gazprom and the Kremlin.