Russia’s Gazprom halts gas supply to Europe for ‘essential maintenance’

Today Russia has shut off gas supplies through a major pipeline to Europe – for the second time this summer.

The state-run Gazprom energy giant said it was carrying out essential maintenance work on the Nordstream pipeline.

Supplies have been running at around 20% of their usual volume – but the Kremlin has denied claims by European ministers that it’s using energy as a “weapon of war.”