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10 billion The construction of the billion euro pipeline has been suspended for almost a year due to US sanctions approved by US President Donald Trump late last year. These criminal measures include an asset freeze and a visa ban for participating companies and their employees.
The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized Germany and other European countries for their dependence on Russian energy supplies, and the US president himself has called Europe’s largest economy a “hostage to Russia.”
But on Friday, however, the German Navigation and Navigation Authority warned seafarers to resume construction of the last kilometers of the pipeline.
The Authority recommended avoiding the area “until approximately December 11, 2020” and noted that “no anchoring or fishing is allowed in place of the planned pipes.”
In approving the resumption of construction, the Nord Stream 2 project managers stated in their statement that “the Fortuna pipeline ship will build a 2.6 km section of pipeline in the German Exclusive Economic Zone at a depth of less 30 meters “.
Angela Merkel continues to strongly support the project, despite harsh criticism at home and beyond.
The international consortium involved in the Nord Stream 2 project includes not only the majority-owned Russian gas giant Gazprom, but also large European companies such as German groups Wintershall and Uniper, British and Dutch giant Shell, French Engie and OMV Austria. .
Gazprom’s shares on the Moscow Stock Exchange rose 3.5 percent on news of the resumption of work.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to strongly support the project, despite harsh criticism at home and beyond.
In addition to the United States, European countries such as Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic countries are vehemently opposed to the pipeline, fearing that the continent will become more dependent on Russian gas supplies and that Moscow may use it to exert political pressure.
Earlier this year, when Russian opponent Alexei Navaln was poisoned, there was speculation that Berlin might withdraw from the Moscow deal.
However, the sanctions imposed after that attack have not yet affected the Nord Stream 2 project.
Mr. Navaln was treated in a Berlin hospital and the German authorities concluded that he had been poisoned by Novičiok, a nerve paralyzing substance developed in the Soviet Union. After the incident, relations between Berlin and Moscow deteriorated dramatically.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, built on a similar route to Nord Stream 2, opened in 2011.
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