The EU was hit particularly hard by the crunch and the UK was not left unscathed as more than 20 energy suppliers have already gone bust.
President Vladimir Putin has been accused of turning the tap on Russia’s gas exports to put pressure on the economic bloc.
Earlier this year he told a conference that rubberstamping the Nord Stream 2 project would be easy fix for the bloc’s energy woes.
He said: “Of course, if we could expand supplies along this route, then, 100 percent, I can say with absolute certainty, the tension on the European energy market would significantly decline, and that would influence prices, of course.”
However, German regulators have suspended this week the approval process, which could push back the approval to March.
source: express.co.uk