In the event of war in the Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions on the Russian economy and its leaders by the United States and its NATO allies, et al., Russia would be ready to re-route gas supplies to other markets, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said this past week.

Siluanov did not say exactly how Russia would do this, nor what other markets might be available to Moscow, but he did say that Russia's foreign exchange reserves, its National Wealth Fund and currently a budget surplus would shield the country and cushion it against sanctions.

The United States and its allies are considering new sanctions including against Russia's largest banks, economy and energy sector, with export controls possible, in the event that Moscow invades its neighbor Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the United States of whipping up tensions over Ukraine in an effort to block Nord Stream 2 and grab European gas market share.

At a weekly media briefing, Zakharova said: "The Nord Stream 2, the project they have been tried to slow down, prevent its appearance, stop its construction, then to make up a reason why it cannot be put in commission, and now they are trying to bring all weight to bear on us, having invented a Russian threat and using this pretense to impose more sanctions and to get more arguments for alarming Europeans by a prospect of not getting energy supplies from us."

Zakharova also claimed that Washington was trying to grab European gas market share from Russia, according to a report by Interfax news agency.