Russia shuts down gas supplies to Europe, blaming sanctions

Russia has completely halted gas supplies to Europe via a major pipeline, saying maintenance work is needed over the next three days.

State-owned energy giant Gazprom had already slashed gas exports through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs for 1,200km under the Baltic Sea from St Petersburg to Germany.

The group also announced it was cutting deliveries to French utility Engie after it failed to receive payment.

The Russian presidency has rejected accusations by French Energy Minister Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher that Moscow is using gas as “a weapon of war".

The office of Vladimir Putin instead blamed Western sanctions for gas flow disruptions, saying they had damaged Russian infrastructure.

Nord Stream 1, which has been in use for more than a decade, was shut down for repairs for 10 days in July. Since then been operating at a fraction of its capacity.

Gas prices in Europe have already risen by 400 percent and EU leaders say the extended outage is an attempt to continue to drive up prices.

Brussels is planning to restructure its power market with the hopes of curbing the price of electricity ahead of the winter.

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