OREANDA-NEWS. In an interview with the Financial Times, the head of the Ukrainian energy company «Naftogaz» Yuriy Vitrenko compared Russian President Putin's demand to pump additional gas through the «Nord Stream 2» gas pipeline with a "geopolitical weapon" Moscow is using. 

As noted by the «FT», Moscow is now having a decisive influence on gas prices in Europe. For example, the order of the Russian leader last week to «Gazprom» to start supplying additional volumes of gas to Austria and Germany after filling storage facilities in Russia led to a sharp decline in gas futures.

However, the «FT» notes, so far there are no signs that any additional volumes will go through the territory of Ukraine. Moscow is concerned that the issue of certification of the «Nord Stream 2» gas pipeline may become a victim of negotiations on the creation of a ruling coalition in Germany, in which the Greens, ardent opponents of the gas pipeline running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, participate.

Vitrenko has made a final attempt to convince the US and the EU that Russia is using gas and an undersea pipeline to weaken Ukraine, depriving it of important gas transit revenues, and to increase Europe's dependence on Russian gas.