Kremlin: Nord Stream 1 Turbine to be Installed, Volumes will Adjust

Pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
Pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
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Kremlin: Nord Stream 1 Turbine to be Installed, Volumes will Adjust

Pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
Pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

A repaired gas turbine will be installed in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany once it is returned after maintenance, and natural gas will then be supplied in “corresponding volumes”, a Kremlin spokesman said on Monday.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stopped short of saying supply would increase, noting that further equipment needed to be repaired.

But he sounded a relatively upbeat note after weeks of uncertainty over the turbine repair in Canada, and a 10-day shutdown of Nord Stream 1 for annual maintenance, had sown doubt in Europe over whether Russia might shut the pipeline altogether, Reuters reported.

“The turbine will be installed after all the formalities are complete... And the gas will be pumped in the corresponding volumes, the volumes which are technologically possible,” Peskov told reporters.

He was commenting on a report by Kommersant newspaper that Siemens Energy, which had serviced the turbine in Canada, had handed over Canadian documentation to Gazprom which would allow its return.

The Kremlin has denied accusations by European politicians that it is using its energy leverage to “blackmail” the European Union, which together with the United States and other Western nations has imposed waves of sanctions on Moscow since it sent its army into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Gazprom resumed supplies via Nord Stream 1 last week after the 10-day maintenance break, but only at 40% of the pipeline’s capacity.

Russia has said it was forced to lower the volume of gas to that level in June because Western sanctions were delaying the return of the turbine from Canada.

European politicians have challenged that explanation, with Germany saying the turbine in question was not meant to be used until September.

Peskov said that there was more Nord Stream 1 equipment that needed repairing and Siemens Energy was aware of that.

He also said that Moscow was not interested in a complete stoppage of Russian gas supplies to Europe, which is in a rush to fill its underground storage with gas before the winter season.

Peskov said Gazprom was not to blame for the storage risks, reiterating Moscow’s line that Europeans are suffering the consequences of sanctions that they themselves imposed against Russia.



Pope Hopes to Visit Türkiye in 2025 to Mark 1,700 Years since the Council of Nicaea

Pope Francis asperges the coffing with the body of late Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot during his funeral in St. Peter’s Basilica at The Vatican Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis asperges the coffing with the body of late Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot during his funeral in St. Peter’s Basilica at The Vatican Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Pope Hopes to Visit Türkiye in 2025 to Mark 1,700 Years since the Council of Nicaea

Pope Francis asperges the coffing with the body of late Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot during his funeral in St. Peter’s Basilica at The Vatican Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis asperges the coffing with the body of late Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot during his funeral in St. Peter’s Basilica at The Vatican Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis said on Thursday that he hopes to travel to Türkiye next year to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.

The visit to Nicaea, today located in İznik on a lake southeast of Istanbul, would come during Francis’ big Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Christianity, according to The AP.

Francis is likely to use the occasion — the anniversary of a council before the Great Schism of 1054, which divided the church between East and West — to once again reach out to Orthodox Christians. Nicaea is one of seven ecumenical councils that are recognized by the Eastern Orthodox.

The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew I, said in September that he expects Francis would visit to commemorate the anniversary in May 2025.

Under Emperor Constantine I, the 325 Council of Nicaea gathered some 300 bishops, according to the Catholic Almanac. Among the outcomes was the Nicaean Creed, a statement of faith that is still recited by Christians today.

Francis announced his hope to visit Nicaea during an audience Thursday with the Vatican’s International Theological Commission. He told the theologians that the Council of Nicaea was a “milestone in the history of the church but also of humanity as a whole.”

Francis made his first visit to Türkiye in 2014 and met with Bartholomew there, as well as earlier that year in Jerusalem and on several occasions at the Vatican since.