Putin’s Natural Gas Leverage Over The EU Is Not Entirely Gone

Russia could turn to exerting pressure over European natural gas supply this winter when it can, Swedish bank SEB said in a note on Monday. Gazprom’s gas deliveries to its former key customers in Europe slumped with the halt of Russian pipeline gas exports to nearly all European countries. Weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Russia cut off supply to Poland, Bulgaria, and Finland. Then Gazprom started to reduce supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany in June 2022, claiming an inability to service gas turbine maintenance…