The Russian government has imposed sanctions on the German natural gas storage company Peissen GmbH. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a corresponding decree on September 30, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday. Until shortly after the outbreak of the war, half of the company belonged to the Russian energy supplier Gazprom, whose shares were then taken over in trust by the Federal Network Agency.

Erdgasspeicher Peissen GmbH manages the "Katharina" gas storage facility in Saxony-Anhalt. The storage facility, named after the Russian Tsarina Catherine the Great, should be able to accommodate 600 million cubic meters of gas in its final stage of construction - planned for 2025. According to media reports, this makes it the fourth largest natural gas storage facility in Europe. But because Gazprom stopped filling the storage facility after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the German government intervened to prevent a gas shortage.

After the trustee takeover of the German Gazprom subsidiaries, Moscow spoke of an expropriation. Russia has responded with counter-sanctions. Before Erdgasspeicher Peissen GmbH, the government blacklisted Gazprom Germania.