Fatal Sanctions Against Nord Stream 2 Being Prepared

The outgoing administration of the United States President is preparing a powerful new package of sanctions against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, Reuters reports, citing its own sources in the White House.

According to the report, new sanctions will be ready “in the near future.” They could deal a fatal blow to the project.

“We’ve been getting body blow on body blow to this, and now we’re in the process of driving a stake through the project heart,” said one of the officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

A new wave of restrictions is expected to be imposed by the administration of incumbent President Donald Trump, whose term ends on 20 January. The sanctions will meet the requirements of the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA), recently passed by the U.S. Congress.

At the same time, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, commented on possible economic restrictions, saying that the U.S. sanctions could complicate the construction of Nord Stream 2 as much as possible.

“Of course, this can complicate, but at the same time our European partners and we want this project to be implemented and finalised in the interests of European consumers and Russian gas suppliers,” the spokesman said.

As a reminder, the Russian Fortuna pipe-laying vessel was recently reported to start laying the Nord Stream 2 pipes in the Danish Exclusive Economic Zone from 15 January, in particular, laying two lines of the pipeline from a point opposite the southern tip of Bornholm Island. In 2019, two Swiss shipbuilders stopped working on the project due to U.S. sanctions.

Bohdan Marusyak