> Russia has indeed 'turned off the taps' (at least Nord Stream 1). At first the excuse was maintenance work, but when that excuse didn't work any longer they first reduced and then stopped the gas flow completely.
There was maintenance work every year at that time. Nobody has seen the maintenance contract, so there are opinions that the reason why Russia refuses to install the repaired turbines is because they wanted to turn off the tap.
While that part is pure speculation, what's agreed fact is that Canada refused to send back the turbines to Russia(because of European sanctions) and after long begging from Germany sent them to Germany instead.
What I also know first hand is that in bigger construction projects nobody would accept hacks(for example an elevator sent through an intermediary rather than the counterparty that signed the contract with) that might result in potential liability issues, especially when the counterparty is already hostile towards you.
Just last week German media reported that if the leaked stays for too long Nordstream will corrode irreparably. Nordstream AG requested to assess and repair the Nordstream damage and Norway refused to give them a permit[1].
So, yeah, maybe. But there are a lot of factors at play here before Russia turned off the tap and even then it wasn't fully turned off.
There was maintenance work every year at that time. Nobody has seen the maintenance contract, so there are opinions that the reason why Russia refuses to install the repaired turbines is because they wanted to turn off the tap.
While that part is pure speculation, what's agreed fact is that Canada refused to send back the turbines to Russia(because of European sanctions) and after long begging from Germany sent them to Germany instead.
What I also know first hand is that in bigger construction projects nobody would accept hacks(for example an elevator sent through an intermediary rather than the counterparty that signed the contract with) that might result in potential liability issues, especially when the counterparty is already hostile towards you.
Just last week German media reported that if the leaked stays for too long Nordstream will corrode irreparably. Nordstream AG requested to assess and repair the Nordstream damage and Norway refused to give them a permit[1].
So, yeah, maybe. But there are a lot of factors at play here before Russia turned off the tap and even then it wasn't fully turned off.
[1] https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-cris...