"Shouldn't appear in our waters": how Poland decided to punish two ships for participating in Nord Stream 2

The Polish authorities intend to cancel the registration of two vessels, which, in their opinion, violate the sanctions against "Nord Stream 2".

We are talking about the ships Krebs Geo and Krebs Jet, which are registered with the Maritime Chamber of the city of Gdansk, but belong to a German shipowner.

According to Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Grzegorz Witkowski, Warsaw is not interested in what these ships are transported and what they do as long as it does not threaten the country's economic interests.

“And these two vessels have recently stepped up their work on the Nord Stream 2 project.

As of Friday, these two ships should not appear in our waters.

Otherwise, we reserve the right to detain them for verification, ”the deputy minister is quoted by the Polish news agency PAP.

Let us remind you that SP-2 is two strings of a gas pipeline with a length of over 1200 km each and a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters.

m per year.

The pipes run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five countries: Russia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Germany.

The United States and some of its allies, including Poland, systematically oppose the project, including Poland.

In a 2019 joint statement, the presidents of the United States and Poland called Nord Stream 2 a "threat to Europe's energy security" and said they were considering ways to stop the project.

Also on russian.rt.com "Warned for a long time": why Ukraine and Poland called on Biden to stop Nord Stream 2

Later, in 2021, Foreign Ministers of Poland and Ukraine Zbigniew Rau and Dmitry Kuleba wrote an appeal to US President Joe Biden with a request to "use all means" to prevent the completion of Nord Stream 2.

Their joint statement said that Russia "used one of the most powerful weapons - the dependence of its neighbors on energy supplies, especially natural gas."

The authors of the appeal noted that they allegedly respect Germany's right to express its point of view regarding the gas pipeline, but "firmly convinced that such projects cannot be viewed narrowly through the prism of bilateral relations."

Note that Germany has repeatedly declared its commitment to the construction of JV-2.

Igor Yushkov, a leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund, in an interview with RT, noted that Poland takes a position of "political opposition to Nord Stream 2."

“Poland torpedoed this project from the very beginning.

And these excuses that he is hurting the Polish economy are quite absurd.

Because, in fact, from the economic point of view, this project is very profitable for Poland, ”Yushkov said.

According to the expert, Poland receives gas from several sources, including through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which runs from Russia through Poland to Germany, and through the LNG receiving terminal.

According to Yushkov, there is another source through which Poland formally receives gas from Germany.

However, Yushkov notes, we are talking about a certain scheme.

According to the expert, gas is delivered to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.

This creates a surplus of fuel that is sold on the market.

“These surpluses are being bought up by the Poles and are leaving this gas in Germany for consumers who were supposed to receive volumes of gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.

And in reality they themselves do not pump this volume, although they receive money for this and leave similar volumes on the border with Belarusians.

That is, the more gas pipelines come to Germany, the more surplus there will be and the more such operations can be carried out, ”the expert believes.

Yushkov added that Poland is trying to demonstrate loyalty to the United States and opposes Nord Stream 2.

At the same time, the analyst is sure that the sanctions against the courts will not affect the situation.

“The current sanctions against the courts will not stop the project.

These ships are not active participants in the project, they do not deliver pipes, they do not pull Fortuna.

Poles simply deprive themselves of a certain amount of money, because the flag of the state implies certain deductions.

Therefore, an additional blow to oneself, ”the expert concluded.

Yuri Pochta, professor at the Department of Comparative Political Science at RUDN University, believes that Poland's position is in friendship with the United States to the detriment of relations with European allies.

“This is a discrediting of Poland itself in the eyes of Europeans, because there is a desire to complete the construction of Nord Stream 2.

This is too faithful service to the "American master."

And of course, all this raises doubts that the Polish elite in power is in a sane state, ”the expert concluded.