The Akademik Chersky pipe-laying machine indicated the course to Nakhodka, according to data from the Marine Traffic and Vesselfinder portals.
At the moment, the ship passes the English Channel in the direction of the North Sea. Prior to this, the British port of Aberdeen was indicated as the destination of Academician Chersky.
The pipe layer left port Nakhodka 76 days ago and is constantly changing its destination.
Sanctions against Nord-Stream 2
The Nord Stream-2 project involves laying two pipelines of a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Berlin and Vienna support the Russian project because they are interested in reliable fuel supplies. Norway also stands for laying the gas pipeline, the government of which owns 30 percent of the shares of Kvaerner, one of the construction contractors.
At the same time, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine oppose Nord Stream 2, pursuing their own interests. The project is also criticized by the United States, which plans to supply its own liquefied natural gas to Europe.
At the end of last year, President Donald Trump signed the defense budget, which provides, inter alia, sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream pipelines. Washington demanded that the companies leading their laying immediately cease construction. So, the work was suspended by the Allseas company, which was engaged in the laying of Nord Stream-2. Then the Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said that the project could be implemented by the ship “Academician Chersky”, however, for its additional preparation it will take some time.
Moscow has repeatedly noted that this gas pipeline is of an exclusively economic nature and meets European interests. In addition, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized sanctions against participants in the energy project, calling them a new round of Russophobia.