Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has revealed the real purpose of the US sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline – to push their interests through political pressure.
“The goal, of course, is not to care about European energy security, which the JV-2 is strengthening, but to push American LNG into the European market. This is an outrageous example of unfair competition and politicization of the energy sector,” the agency quotes his words.
On December 26, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced “mirror measures” in response to U.S. sanctions and also stressed that Washington is mixing politics with energy.
On December 21, it became known that sanctions against the Russian gas pipelines “Nord Stream-2” and “Turkish Stream” were included in the U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 2020, which was signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the project will be completed despite the new restrictions, although it will take several months longer than planned.