Ukraine News: Putin bans former Gazprom subsidiaries from gas trading

Created: 05/12/2022, 14:34

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed Gazprom Germania and other former Gazprom subsidiaries on the sanctions list.

(Archive image) © Paul Zinken/dpa

Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed Gazprom Germania and other former Gazprom subsidiaries on the sanctions list.

According to the Kremlin, the former foreign subsidiaries of the Russian state energy company Gazprom are now completely excluded from gas trade with Russia.

"Companies can no longer participate in the process," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.

Ukraine war and sanctions: Putin excludes Gazprom subsidiaries from gas trading

Russia will no longer maintain relations with the sanctioned companies.

"They are simply forbidden," says Peskow.

Accordingly, other companies in Europe must take over gas trading with Russia.

Peskow did not give specific details on the implementation of the sanctions published the day before.

The Kremlin spokesman referred to Gazprom.

The group has not yet commented on this.

After the war against Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the West imposed sanctions on several Gazprom subsidiaries in Europe.

When the Russian energy giant tried to liquidate Gazprom Germania, the federal government took the German Gazprom subsidiary under state control in April as a strategically important infrastructure company.

As a result, the Russian government has now added Gazprom Germania and 30 other former Gazprom subsidiaries to the sanctions list and banned Russian companies from doing business with these companies.

Less Russian gas has been flowing west since Wednesday morning due to armed conflicts in eastern Ukraine.

Gas deliveries from Russia: Habeck does not call the alarm level

Despite the reduced gas supplies from Russia, the federal government sees no reason to declare the gas emergency plan on alert.

"The situation is manageable," said Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) on Thursday in Berlin.

Although there were now no daily deliveries of around ten million cubic meters of gas from Russia - but that was a "quantity that can be compensated".

He added: "We will not declare the alert level today."

As part of the gas emergency plan, the federal government had already declared the first stage, the so-called early warning stage.

The situation will continue to be observed “with great concentration”, said Habeck.

At the same time, he accused the Russian leadership of “using energy as a weapon”.

According to Habeck, storage and trading companies are affected by the sanctions, “but not the network operators”.

Germany has "prepared" for this situation, said the minister.