Gazprom suspends gas supplies to Latvia

Russian gas consortium Gazprom announced the immediate suspension of gas supplies to neighbouring Latvia.

"Today Gazprom suspended gas supplies to Latvia under the July application due to violations of gas selection conditions," the Russian corporation said in a brief statement.

This comes a day after the Baltic country announced the resumption of Russian gas imports through a mediating company.

At the time, Latvia and the other two Baltic republics, Estonia and Lithuania, refused to accept Russia's demand to pay for gas in roubles.

In mid-July the Latvian parliament adopted a decision to ban all gas imports from the Russian giant from 1 January 2023.

Latvia has a large underground gas storage facility in the town of Incukalns, operated by Conexus Baltic Grid, a unified gas distribution and storage network for the three Baltic countries.

According to Gazprom's accounts, Latvia received more than 1.6 billion cubic metres of gas annually in 2019 and 2020.

Gazprom on Wednesday cut gas pumping to Germany to one-fifth of the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline, a decision Berlin considers a "war strategy".

Russian President Vladimir Putin insists that Gazprom will fulfil its contractual obligations, while the company cites "technical reasons" for the cuts, for which it blames the German company Siemens, which owns the turbines at the compressor station.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that the twin Nord Stream 2 pipeline "can fully meet Europe's needs", but stressed that the Europeans "do not allow it to operate for political reasons".

Nord Stream 2 was never launched because Germany froze its certification on 22 February this year, the day after Russia recognised the independence of the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, and two days before Russia launched its 'special military operation' in Ukraine.