Kremlin says Europe to blame for gas delivery stop, expects negotiated end to conflict at some point

Even amid historic tensions between Russia and the West, the Kremlin expects relations to return to normal at some point, according to spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
"Every confrontation ends with an easing of tensions, and every crisis situation ends at the negotiating table," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on state TV, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.
"That will be the case this time as well." It is likely, he said, that it will not happen so quickly, but it will happen, he said on the TV programme "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin."
The comments come as Russia continues to weather unprecedented Western sanctions since the start of its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Even before that, relations had been severely strained.
Peskov added that Russia is a proponent of international harmony based on mutual respect and benefit, and accused the US, without naming it directly, of taking a kind of cowboy approach.

EUROPE TO BLAME

Peskov also blamed the EU for the suspension of gas deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
Peskov said that "if the Europeans make an absolutely absurd decision, where they refuse to maintain their systems, or rather, systems belonging to Gazprom, then it is not Gazprom's fault but the fault of the politicians who decided about the sanctions."
According to Peskov, Europeans are contractually obliged to maintain the systems of the Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Gazprom had announced on Friday evening that it would no longer send natural gas to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, citing an oil leak in a compressor station.
The German government has questioned the reasoning, along with pipeline manufacturer Siemens, arguing that such oil leaks are fairly routine and do not require gas deliveries to stop.