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Donald Trump and Joe Biden are very different. However, they still have one thing in common: they are both against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The United States is increasing pressure and extending sanctions against project participants.
“This pipeline is not going to work. It looks like a dying pipeline,” a senior US government official told Washington in an interview with the DPA. He said Washington had already identified several companies and individuals who could be sanctioned under the Nord Stream-2 Sanctions Act.
The US authorities are currently communicating with those affected. But not because they want to impose sanctions on European companies, but to warn them and give them time to withdraw from the project, the source said. He is convinced that it is “a geopolitical project that Russia will use to blackmail European countries.”
Moscow dependency?
With this pipeline, Germany becomes dependent on Moscow, say both Republicans of outgoing President Donald Trump and Democrats of newly elected President Joe Biden. Last December, the US Congress approved with the votes of the two main parties the European Energy Security Protection Act (PEESA), which has already entered into force after, despite strong reactions from Germany and Russia , President Trump signed on December 20, 2019.
The sanctions are aimed at companies that provide special ships for laying pipes on the seabed. This US law initially succeeded in stopping construction of the facility: late last year, under threat of US sanctions, the Swiss company Allseas, in charge of laying pipes at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, suspended works on the project. By then, 2,300 kilometers of a total of 2,460 kilometers of pipe length had been completed.
Still no sanctions
So far, the United States has not resorted to sanctions. In August, however, three US senators openly threatened in writing the operator of the Baltic port of Sassnitz-Mukran on the German island of Rügen with severe sanctions. In this port the Russian ship “Academician Chersky” docked, which must complete the laying of the pipes.
In October, Washington increased the pressure: according to a new directive from the US State Department, sanctions also threaten anyone who provides funds, materials or facilities for special ships. Against this background, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, if necessary, Russia would complete the project on its own, and without foreign partners.
The Russian company Gazprom is the sole owner of Nord Stream-2 AD. Its financial partners are the German companies Wintershall Dea and Uniper (the first is a joint venture of BASF and LetterOne, and the second is part of Eon), as well as the Dutch-British company Shell, the French GDF and the Austrian OMV. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is chairman of Nord Stream’s supervisory board, and at Nord Stream 2 he is chairman of the board.
Trump and Biden are unanimous here
Uniper described the US resistance as “an unequivocal interference in European sovereignty” and expressed confidence that the project will be completed. Wintershall Dea claims they have not received a warning from Washington so far.
The US government spokesman told the DPA that supporters of Nord Stream 2 should not rely on a change of government in the White House. “There will be sanctions regardless of who sits in the Oval Office,” he said.
The new president of the United States will be sworn in on January 20, 2021. And Joe Biden, however, is critical of the project for a second gas pipeline at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. As vice president of Barack Obama, he described the pipeline as a “fundamentally bad business for Europe.”
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