MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said starting the Nord Stream pipeline that remained intact would take one week, but Germany is showing no interest in this.
He made the comment in an interview with All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company journalist Pavel Zarubin, according to a fragment that the journalist posted to Telegram.
"In the end, everything depends solely on the decision of the German government. Nord Stream-2: One pipeline remained intact despite the terrorist attack," the president said. "Can we restart Nord Stream-2? We can!"
"It would take a week. But they don't want to," Putin went on to say.
The president suggested that the West stopped buying Russian gas in the expectation the country would collapse faster than "irreversible" harm would be done to Western economies.
"But it’s them that are effectively starting to have irreversible processes. The manufacturing industry is moving over to other countries, including the US, where more favorable conditions were created and energy resources are cheaper. That’s because they need to liquefy it, then ship it across the ocean, then regasify it again. All this brings up the cost," Putin stated. "We, thank God, are coping.".