Nord Stream 1: Russia switches off gas pipeline citing maintenance

Shutdown at short notice by state-owned Gazprom disrupts European efforts to stockpile for winter

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Russia has stopped the flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe, citing the need to carry out repairs, in a move that has heightened already acute nervousness over the reliability of winter energy supplies.

The halt on the Baltic Sea pipeline at 5am on Wednesday would last for three days, Gazprom, the Russian state energy company said. It had warned two weeks ago that the outage was due but the German government said it had not been formally told, receiving the information instead via social media after it was posted on Gazprom's Telegram channel.