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relief and support. Energy intensive industries across Europe are already shutting down or reducing production as they have become economically unviable and the beginnings of social protests at the pain of the economic war has begun. How far these trends go remains to be seen.
The energy crisis is likely to get worse. Gazprom began reducing the flows through Nord Stream 1 in June, but it appears that Russia blew the pipeline up at the end of September cutting off even the possibility of more gas deliveries for the rest of the winter. If the weather is mild in the next six months with the gas storage tanks 90% full as of the start of October, Europe probably has enough gas to get to the end of the heating season. However, without Russian gas it will be difficult to refill the tanks over the summer and Europe will very likely face another energy crisis next winter as well with the same trillion euro-plus costs.
All of this will push Russia and the rest of Europe into a deep recession next year that will only add to the pain.
9 RUSSIA Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com
