Moscow (AFP)

Russia announced on Friday the completion of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a pipe to Germany that critics say will increase European dependence on Moscow.

The managing director of the gas giant Gazprom "Alexeï Miller declared that this morning, at 8.45 am Moscow time (05.45 GMT), the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been completely completed", indicated the Russian public group.

This announcement tastes of triumph for Russia, while the diplomatic tensions generated by this 10 billion euro project were once so strong that some believed it would never see the light of day.

For its detractors, in Europe as in the United States, the tube will durably increase European energy dependence on Russia, the West's great strategic rival, and constitutes a betrayal of the interests of Ukraine, an ally West facing Moscow.

Nord Stream 2 is to double Russian gas deliveries to Germany, the main promoter of the project.

This tube with a capacity of 55 billion m3 of gas per year travels 1,230 kilometers under the Baltic Sea on the same route as its twin Nord Stream 1, operational since 2012.

For years, the project opposed Washington and Berlin but also the Europeans between them, as well as Russia and the Ukraine.

Finally, a surprising turnaround in Washington, after the coming to power of Joe Biden, allowed the development of a German-American compromise to try to close this dispute.

One of the most controversial aspects of Nord Stream 2 is that by bypassing the traditional delivery route via Ukraine, it will deprive the country of around € 1 billion per year in transit costs.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on August 22, 2021 SERGEY DOLZHENKO POOL / AFP / Archives

Kiev also fears that this will make it more vulnerable vis-à-vis Moscow, depriving it of an important lever of influence.

- Geopolitical weapon -

Criticized on this issue, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed in Ukraine at the end of August that her country would do everything to extend the Russian-Ukrainian transit contract expiring in 2024 and insisted that gas should not be used by Moscow as "a weapon. ".

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told him to consider Nord Stream 2 as a "dangerous geopolitical weapon".

Operated by the Russian giant Gazprom, the project, estimated at more than 10 billion euros, was co-financed by five European groups in the energy sector (OMV, Engie, Wintershall Dea, Uniper and Shell).

Germany is the main promoter of the gas pipeline within the EU, which it believes is above all economic and will help it achieve the energy transition to which it has embarked.

The United States has been standing up against this project from the start, which would weaken Ukraine, considering that it strengthens Russian interests, at a time when the Americans also want to sell their shale gas to Europeans.

Europeans are divided.

Poland and the Baltic countries are worried that the EU will bow to Russian ambitions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Joe Biden in Washington, July 15, 2021 SAUL LOEB AFP / Archives

Even in Germany, Nord Stream is not unanimous.

A report by the German economic research institute DIW in 2018 judged the gas pipeline to be based on forecasts which "considerably overestimate the demand for natural gas in Germany and Europe".

The administration of former US President Donald Trump passed a law in 2019 imposing sanctions against companies involved in the construction.

Started in April 2018, the site was therefore interrupted in December 2019 when there were only 150 kilometers of tube to lay in German and Danish waters, before resuming a year later.

Joe Biden gave up blocking the project, believing that it was too late and that it was better to bet on the alliance with Germany which Washington wishes to ensure cooperation in other files, in particular vis-à-vis China .

© 2021 AFP