"Gazprom" published the announcement on the termination of gas supply on social networks. In a strangely-worded sentence it said the action was taken "due to a violation of the conditions established for gas withdrawal".
— Gazprom (@GazpromEN) July 30, 2022
The announcement comes just a couple of days after "Latvijas gāze" (Latvian gas) said that it is buying gas from Russia, but not from Gazprom. The company refused to disclose the name of the new supplier from which gas is purchased in Russia. Gazprom holds a 34 per cent stake in Latvijas gāze.
According to the publicly available data of the operator of the Latvian gas transmission system "Conexus Baltic grid", gas continued to flow into Latvia on Saturday morning. The flow, however, is less than half of the available capacity, reports Rus.LSM.lv.
Russia has already cut off gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark, which refused to pay for gas in accordance with Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand to pay in rubles. The European Commission has told EU member states not to pay in rubles, but in the currencies agreed when contracts were signed.
Russia frequently uses its state-owned energy suppliers to further it political ends, and the decision to cut off supplies is likely also related to the staunch support Latvia has given to Ukraine in its defense against unprovoked Russian invasion.
In any case, Latvia has already decided to completely give up Russian gas supplies from January 1 next year.
