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Russian President Putin (archive image):
Photo: Alexander Demianchuk / imago images / ITAR-TASS
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the gas valves to be opened again in November to ease the energy crisis in Europe.
He instructed the state-owned company Gazprom to increase deliveries to Germany and Austria as soon as the underground storage facilities in Russia are replenished, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Gazprom boss Alexei Miller said that his company could start after November 8th.
Russian state media have already celebrated Putin as the savior of Europe.
The Kremlin chief had recently repeatedly pointed out that deliveries in excess of the contractually agreed quantities had already been made, but considered further steps to be difficult.
In view of the record gas prices, he had also repeatedly promoted the rapid commissioning of the controversial Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline.
Gazprom's critics recently suspected that the company was not reacting to increased European demand in order to force the pipeline to go into operation quickly.
The Russian side had denied such allegations.
mic / dpa-afx