INTERNATIONAL: The CEO of Russia's gas industry giant Gazprom, Alexie Miller has reported to President Vladimir Putin during a meeting on Wednesday that the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline is ready for operation amid an energy crunch in Europe.

Gazprom has completed filling the second string of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline with gas, and both strings with sufficient pressure are fully ready for use, Miller has added.

Responding to this, Putin has said now everything depends on Russia's partners and consumers in Europe, and as soon as they agree, large additional volumes of Russian gas will immediately begin to flow to Europe.The launch of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will lower gas prices on the spot market, he predicted.

The 1,234-kilometres pipeline, the longest offshore gas pipeline in the world, is expected to transport 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.