Russia stops natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.

Not only in the two countries are politicians and companies checking how secure the energy supply still is.

Here are the most important questions and answers.

Helmut Buender

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Jan Hauser

Editor in Business.

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Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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Andreas Mihm

Business correspondent for Austria, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey based in Vienna.

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Catherine Wagner

Business correspondent for Russia and the CIS based in Moscow.

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What does this mean for Poland and Bulgaria?

The effects of the Russian gas supply freeze on Poland and Bulgaria are evidently limited.

The Polish government's representative for strategic energy infrastructure, Piotr Naimski, assured that all gas customers in Poland would continue to be supplied at the previous level.

Poland had already announced that it would not renew the supply contract with the Russian energy company Gazprom, which expires at the end of the year.

Deliveries from Russia via the Yamal line via Belarus covered about half of Polish consumption in 2020.

Poland maintains an LNG import port and should be able to access Norwegian gas from a new pipeline via Denmark from autumn.

The gas storage tanks are three quarters full.

Bulgaria is much more dependent on Russia – at around 90 percent.

Deliveries are now coming into the country via Turkey.

The government had announced that it would cut salaries.

Instead, it relies on gas from Azerbaijan and Greece.

Bulgaria's Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said: "It is clear that at the moment natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war."

Does Germany have to supply gas to Poland now?

Poland and Bulgaria would now initially be supplied with gas via their neighboring countries, the European Commission announced on Wednesday after a meeting of the EU gas coordination group.

In the coming days, the EU Commission wants to work on a solidarity solution for the supply of both countries.

Like Poland, Germany belongs to the “Baltic Group”.

Should there be a supply emergency in Poland, the SOS regulation obliges Germany to supply gas to Poland, even in the event of its own supply bottlenecks, in order to supply vulnerable customers there, such as households or hospitals.

How does the gas price react?

After the delivery stop announcement, the price of gas rose, which was to be expected.

The European natural gas future will initially increase in price by up to 20 percent to around 120 euros per megawatt hour.

The trading price (TTF) later fell to around 100 euros per megawatt hour.

Although that is more than a year ago, it is still significantly less than in early March at the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The retail price affects household costs later.

Energy suppliers usually have long-term supply contracts, which mean lower costs at the moment.

However, if the gas price stays high for a longer period of time, the individual tariffs will also become more expensive.

What is the Kremlin aiming at with its demands?