BRUSSELS — Washington and Moscow are in talks to revive the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, as the Kremlin vies to regain a foothold in Europe amid the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The Nord Stream pipelines, which previously carried gas from Russia to Germany via pipelines under the Baltic Sea, were blown up in an apparent act of sabotage in late 2022.
“There is talk about the Nord Streams,” Lavrov told Russia’s state-controlled Channel One TV station, according to a readout shared by his ministry Wednesday. “It will probably be interesting if the Americans use their influence on Europe and force it not to refuse Russian gas.”
Before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow provided 40 percent of the European Union’s gas imports — allowing it to wield vast influence over the bloc’s energy supplies. Though the EU has since slashed that dependence by around two-thirds, the issue remains a sore point for Kyiv, since oil and gas purchases remain a key lifeline for Russia’s war machine.
