[borissk]

The "technical" issues they cited wouldn't stand in court, especially when experts from the western companies that produced and installed the equipment testify that they are made up and/or trivial to fix.

Practically every country that has it's gas cut off is preparing to sue.

During the summer the price of gas on the European exchanges was often over $2000 for 1000 cubic meters. The long term contracts signed years ago had the price fixed around $200. Russia was losing a ton of money everyday these pipes were pumping gas. On top of that these deliveries were decreasing the global demand for gas - lowering the price Russia could sell gas outside of contract. There was a huge pressure from the top in GasProm to find a way out of those contracts.