Russia has not changed plans for the Nord Stream and is negative about any sanctions exercises, considering it unfair competition, said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“You know that plans for Nord Stream 2 have not changed. Plans have not changed, this is the first. Our attitude towards any sanctioning exercises is well known. This attitude does not change, it is extremely negative, we believe that such aspirations are nothing else, as a manifestation of unfair competition and actions that are contrary to international law”, – Peskov told the reporters, answering the question of how the Kremlin assesses the risks of new sanctions and whether Nord Stream 2 will be completed.
Earlier, the US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt that new sanctions against Nord Stream 2 could be passed quickly by the US Congress, despite the election campaign. The purpose of the new sanctions will be to prevent the pipeline from commissioning. The ambassador did not specify how this will be implemented in practice, but one of the possibilities may be fines for companies that provide technical maintenance of the pipeline.
At the end of last year, the United States adopted the defense budget for 2020, which, in particular, provides for sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream pipelines. Swiss Allseas, which worked on Nord Stream 2, almost immediately announced the suspension of its construction, as a result, Russia is working on the project on its own. Germany criticized the sanctions against the project, noting that it considers Nord Stream 2 an economic project and rejects extraterritorial sanctions. Ulrike Demmer, deputy official of the German Cabinet of Ministers, said at a briefing on Wednesday that the government’s stance on Nord Stream 2 remains unchanged.
Nord Stream 2 involves the construction of two pipelines of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The United States is actively opposing the project, promoting its liquefied natural gas in the EU, as well as Ukraine and several European countries.