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Russia is shutting down gas supplies from a major pipeline to Europe for the next three days.
A Kremlin spokesman blamed Western sanctions against Russia, which he claimed prevented normal repair work. Moscow had already restricted its supply through Nordstream 1 entering the continent via Germany.
That announcement has sent energy bills across Europe to soar to eye-watering levels. Power prices for 2023 in Germany at one point spiked to above $1600 NZ dollars per megawatt hour.
For comparison, one megawatt hour in New Zealand costs less than a quarter of that.
Germany correspondent Thomas Sparrow spoke to Corin Dann.