Russia said Friday it hopes that a row with Turkmenistan over a pipeline blast that halted Turkmen gas supplies to Russia will be settled, after a rare outburst of emotion from Ashgabat.
"We are expecting that all controversial issues related to the accident at a pipeline in Turkmenistan will be settled between Gazprom and the Turkmen side," Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told Agence France Presse.
"Our understanding is that it is a technological incident."
An explosion on a pipeline in the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan halted gas supplies to Russia Thursday, and the Turkmen Foreign Ministry blamed Russia for the mishap.
"Russian company Gazprom, without prior notification to the Turkmen side, abruptly decreased the volume of withdrawal of Turkmen natural gas," the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Turkmens are somewhat emotional people," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said, adding that Gazprom executives are in Ashgabat to look into the issue.