VLADIVOSTOK, September 6. /TASS/. Sanctions prevent maintenance activities at the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"We cannot say how repairs [at Nord Stream] will be conducted as sanctions prevent them," he said. "Gazprom has repeatedly confirmed its reliability as a guarantor of energy security of the European continent, but sanctions imposed by the EU, the UK, the US and Canada have virtually broken the system of technical maintenance of turbine components that ensured the pumping," he explained.

There are also legal problems related to sanctions, which require additional guarantees that are not provided to Russia though, Peskov added.

"It is this situation that brought Gazprom as a supplier and European countries as a side receiving gas to the position with only one operating turbine left," he said, noting that "the European states and the states that imposed sanctions against [Russia] are fully responsible for this situation."