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Austria says Russia to cut off gas supplies on Saturday

Austria says Russia to cut off gas supplies on Saturday

by host

It’s unclear whether Russia has carried through with the threat, Euronews reported on Saturday. Gazprom is sending gas to Europe via Ukraine at normal levels, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

Nehammer said on Friday that Austria has a secure supply of alternative fuel and that “no one will freeze this winter, no home will be cold.”

Russia cut off most natural gas supplies to Europe in 2022, blaming disputes over payment in rubles. EU leaders described the move as energy blackmail over their support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. The cutoff sent gas prices soaring and contributed to a sharp burst of inflation that went into double digits but has since been going down.

European governments had to scramble to line up alternative supplies.

Still, three European countries — Austria, Slovakia and Hungary — have been getting supplies of Russian gas via a pipeline through Ukraine despite the fighting there. Ukraine has said it will not extend the transit agreement with Gazprom beyond January 2025 in a bid to choke off a source of income that Kyiv says Russia uses to fund its war and pushing these countries to diversify supplies.

Austria gets most of its natural gas from Russia. Last December, the country’s dependence on Russia for gas rose to 98 percent and Vienna has been looking to accelerate the end of its Russian gas ties. In February, Vienna announced plans that would force domestic energy firms to slowly phase out Russian gas and explore options for an early end to the country’s long-term gas contract with Moscow.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, on Friday spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in their first direct exchange in nearly two years.

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