Putin Weaponizes Energy With Nord Stream 1 Shutdown — White House

The White House on Wednesday called Moscow’s decision to shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline "another attempt to weaponize energy," TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Russian gas giant Gazprom halted energy supplies to Europe via the pipeline in a "planned maintenance outage” . as it put it, expected to last until Sept. 3.

“We’re pragmatic about this and we know that there’s more work to do. So, we’re going to look into ways to increase gas stockpiles in Europe or to help bolster other sources of energy,” White House National Security Council's John Kirby told reporters on a conference call.

“But, all of this work, quite frankly, is a result of Mr. Putin’s decisions to weaponize energy as he has weaponized food as he has weaponized information,” her added.

For White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, "this is exactly why President Biden and the G7 leaders have directed relevant members of their team to explore a mechanism to set a global price cap."

"You heard us talk about that when the President was in Europe -- most recently, in Germany.  And this would be for Russian oil and -- and starving Putin of his main source of cash and forcing down the price of Russian oil to help blunt the impact of Putin's war on the pump," she said during her daily press conference.

According to her, the issue will be discussed further this week at the G7 Finance Ministers’ meeting. This is happening on Friday.

The U.S. has already taken strong action to ban Russia oil, and U.S. allies have announced plans to wind down their own imports of Russian oil.

"But again, Putin, as you've heard us say, has continued to try to find new markets for Russian oil. This is the most effective way, we believe, to hit hard at Putin’s revenue. And doing so will result in not only a drop in Putin's oil revenue but also global energy prices as well", Jean-Pierre added.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.