The White House has not made it clear whether the President of the United States brandished this energy threat on Tuesday during his virtual summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

But in front of the press, his adviser for national security, Jake Sullivan, insisted on this track "absolutely priority".

Noting that the gas pipeline was not yet in operation, pending certification on the German side, he considered that it could not therefore serve as a "lever for Putin". "It is a lever for the West, because if Vladimir Poutine wants the future Nord Stream 2 to carry gas, he will perhaps not take the risk of invading Ukraine," he said.

Since last week, the US government has threatened Russia, accused of massing its troops again on the Ukrainian border, with draconian economic sanctions if it decides to attack the neighboring country.

And to show that he is more determined than in 2014, when he let Moscow annex Ukrainian Crimea, he assures us that these will be unprecedented sanctions that he "refrained from using in the past. "precisely" because of the impact they would have on Russia ".

US-German Agreement

Speculation is rife around an initiative by Washington to cut Russia off Swift, a vital cog in global finance, which allows banks to circulate money.

But this hypothesis, often qualified as a "nuclear option" in the light of the repercussions it would have for the Russian economy but also for the world, would only be considered by the United States as a last resort - no American official has not confirmed it.

"Swift would be a major escalation," ex-US ambassador to Kiev, William Taylor, vice-chairman of the United States Institute of Peace think tank, told AFP.

According to him, "Nord Stream 2 is a serious option", "one of the most important measures" under consideration, because it would allow the Biden administration to show great firmness without going so far as to provoke a economic earthquake.

"NS2" has long poisoned relations between Washington and Berlin.

The United States strongly opposes this gas pipeline which passes through the Baltic Sea, threatening to deprive Ukraine of part of the revenue collected on transit, but also of a means of pressure on Moscow.

Despite a political class opposed to the project, no American government has however taken the risk of clashing with Germany, a key ally.

And the limited sanctions taken so far have not stopped construction from going to the end.

Noting that the work is now inevitable, Joe Biden decided to end the dispute with the Germans by signing an agreement with them in July which is now back on the international stage.

This text warned that if Russia were to commit "aggressive acts against Ukraine", Germany would take measures "to limit Russian export capacities to Europe in the energy sector".

"Long-term project"

It is on this compromise, which went largely unnoticed at the time, that American diplomacy is based today.

"If President Putin moves on Ukraine, we expect the pipeline to be suspended," the State Department number three, Victoria Nuland, hammered Tuesday before US senators.

For William Taylor, it is a powerful weapon because "it is a long term project" for the Kremlin.

"The reason why Putin is really keen on it" is that it would allow him to be able to open and close "the gas valves to Europe and thus" to influence European decision-making ", he believes. -he.

Such a threat will therefore "get its full attention".

On the American political scene, it also allows the Democratic president to respond to Republicans who do not forgive him for having resigned themselves to the construction of the "pipeline".

It remains to be seen whether Germany, so far very attached to Nord Stream 2, is ready to play the American game when the conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel hands over power to the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz.

"The Germans are divided on this", argues William Taylor, noting that the future Minister of Foreign Affairs, the environmentalist Annalena Baerbock, is on a line more opposed to the gas pipeline.

© 2021 AFP