Europeans awaited news early Thursday about whether Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom, had resumed flows of natural gas through a key pipeline that normally provides more than a third of Germany’s needs as well as essential gas supplies to several of its European partners.
The pipeline, Nord Stream 1, has been offline since July 11 for its previously scheduled annual maintenance. It was to resume operations Thursday, but after weeks of back-and-forth between Russia and Europe, fears among European Union officials were running high that the pipeline would remain out of commission for longer, as punishment for opposition to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
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