The Kremlin has its own view on breach of contract. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia considers the suspension of gas supplies to OMV fully justified…
“We have no intention of doing charity in this case,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to Russian state news agency Tass. Since last Saturday, Gazprom has stopped supplying gas to OMV under its long-standing supply contract. However, Russian gas continues to flow to Austria.
The reason is a legal dispute between OMV and the Russian company Gazprom due to supply disruptions. Zakharova said there were objective reasons for the reduced delivery in September 2022.
Weak justification from the Kremlin
She mentioned the blowing up of the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline and the closure of transit through the Yamal-Europe line. These factors were ignored. Moscow itself had completely stopped gas supplies via the Yamal-Europe line in the spring of 2022. The reason given at the time was that Poland did not want to transfer payments to rubles.
An arbitration court awarded OMV damages of 230 million euros in the legal dispute. OMV subsequently announced that it would settle the claim against payment obligations to the Russian gas supplier.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
