Russia halts flow of Nord Stream 1 Pipeline

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was switched off by Russian officials on Wednesday, citing maintenance to last through September 2nd. The Nord Stream 1 is the biggest pipeline bringing Russian natural gas supplies to Europe via Germany and was previously shut down for 10 days in late July for "annual maintenance." Wednesday’s outage has fueled existing concerns that Russia is deliberately cutting off supplies of its gas to Europe, in retaliation to Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine – an allegation Moscow denies.