US congressmen are drafting a bill that expands sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. This was reported by Bloomberg with reference to the document.

As stated in the material, now restrictive measures will be applied to companies that provide “underwriting, insurance or reinsurance services” to vessels working on pipelines, as well as to companies that provide services or facilities for the modernization of technology or the installation of welding equipment on ships. In addition, sanctions will threaten ports that will be hosted by ships participating in the construction of the gas pipeline.

Thus, restrictions will be directed against the Russian pipe layers Fortuna and Academic Chersky.

According to one of the authors of the initiative, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruise, anyone who participates in the project of the operator Nord Stream 2 AG will have to understand that “they will face serious and immediate American sanctions.” At the same time, New Hampshire Democratic Senator Gene Shahin said that Russia, with the help of Nord Stream-2, would be able to "use the US allies to its advantage." She also believes that the project "threatens the energy independence of Ukraine and Europe."

It is noted that the document may be included in the law on budgetary allocations for national defense (National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA) of 2021.

  • Capitol, Washington
  • Reuters
  • © Erin Scott

At the end of May, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell reiterated Washington’s intention to impose yet another sanction on Nord Stream 2. The diplomat also called on Germany to “stop feeding the monster,” speaking of Russia. Note that Grenell’s statement regarding the construction of the main pipeline from Russia to Germany was the last for an American diplomat as US ambassador to Germany - on June 2, he resigned.

In response, the press secretary of the German Minister of Economics and Energy, Peter Altmeyer, said that now was not the right time “to escalate and threaten to introduce new extraterritorial and international sanctions sanctions.”

“Nord Stream 2 and the companies supporting the project still believe that the speedy commissioning of the pipeline meets the interests of European energy security, European consumers, the EU’s economic competitiveness and climate protection commitments,” Nord Stream 2 AG said.

In turn, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov emphasized that the plans to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline have not changed.

“Of course, it is regrettable that politicians dominate in Washington whose style is not the development of mutually beneficial international cooperation in the energy sector, but the use of the energy factor to continue anti-Russian and, in fact, anti-European policies. Because we are talking about European energy projects, ”said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Later, Russian Ambassador to the United States of America Anatoly Antonov, on Rossiya 1 television channel, said that Washington would not be able to somehow stop the implementation of this energy project.

“If harshly, briefly, no,” he explained.

At the end of December 2019, US President Donald Trump signed the country's defense budget for the new fiscal year, which provided for sanctions against the Russian Nord Stream-2 and Turkish Stream pipelines. In this regard, the Swiss company Allseas, which carried out the laying of the gas pipes, curtailed work, saying that it did not plan to return to the construction of this pipeline.

Nord Stream 2 represents two lines of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year, which pass through exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five countries - Russia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Germany.

The “Turkish stream” runs along the bottom of the Black Sea to the European part of Turkey, its total capacity is 31.5 billion cubic meters per year. On January 8, leaders of Russia, Turkey, Serbia and Bulgaria held a pipeline launch ceremony in Istanbul.