On May 11, the Government of the Russian Federation announced a sanctions list involving 31 subsidiaries and cooperative enterprises of Gazprom in Europe, the United States and other countries, including Gazprom German branch and Russia-Eu Poland Gas Company. Russia-eu Poland Gas Company is mainly responsible for the operation of yamal-Europe gas pipeline in Poland.
The sanctions are based on a list of "unfriendly countries and entities," the Russian government said in a statement. It not only prohibits Russian companies from dealing with sanctioned parties, but also does not allow them to fulfill existing contractual obligations, and amounts to a "total ban" on US and European companies.
On May 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin said publicly at a conference on The Russian economy that the sanctions initiated by western countries against Russia would eventually backfire and cause global economic turmoil.
"As you can see from the sharp rise in inflation in Europe, they are inevitably being hurt by the sanctions on Russia. Commodity prices across the eurozone have risen by over 11%, and this is entirely due to Europe itself." Putin stressed.
It is worth noting that Ukraine's Gas Transport Service company OGTSU has stopped receiving gas from Russia from the Novopskov pump station in the north of Luhansk since May 11. The company stressed that it would not reopen gas connections until Ukraine gained full control of its own gas transit system.
OGTSU's gas terminal in the Luhansk region carries almost one-third of Russia's gas to Europe, with 32.6 million cubic meters per day. "The US and Eu sanctions against Russia are a double-edged sword," said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president. "While trying to hurt us, they will also pay a huge price."
It is widely believed that it is not realistic for European countries to completely cut off energy imports from Russia, as energy costs in many European countries are "ridiculously high" and people in some European countries have taken to the streets in protest. So far, however, the European Union has not abandoned its intention to impose sanctions on Russia, despite strong protests from Hungary and other countries, insisting that lifting or postponing the ban would be a sign of weakness to Russia.
