The US administration, having adopted sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, has launched a process with an extremely unpredictable outcome. This was told by the correspondent of the German publication “Handelsblatt” Klaus Stratmann.
According to him, at the moment when the US President Donald Trump approved a set of punitive measures, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin assured that he would respond to this, the German government is “between a rock and a hard place”. Berlin will soon have to voice a clearer position on the current situation. At the same time, Stratmann emphasizes that there will be no winner in such a confrontation.
“Americans go beyond what is allowed on the issue of Nord Stream-2. The sanctions are primarily directed against Russia, but they directly hit the closest allies [USA]”, – the journalist continues, emphasizing that at least one European company may cease to exist due to American restrictions. At the same time, he notes, Washington is trying to deprive the EU of the right to resolve its energy issues, which has become an unprecedented provocation by the United States.
Stratmann also criticized the approach of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who reacted to such a serious crisis with a languid and indifferent criticism about the “unacceptability” of sanctions. The journalist believes that she is not capable of more. At the same time, he calls on the German government to act with the goal of “protecting European companies from American arbitrariness”. In the long run, German economy will suffer far more if extraterritorial sanctions become a habit of Washington, Stratmann concluded.