Following the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the United States, President Joe Biden, in particular, announced that Nord Stream-2 was almost completed and there was no point in imposing sanctions against it.
This position of Biden is sharply criticized by some politicians and the media in the United States.
The Associated Press notes that Biden “runs the risk of appearing weak in relation to Russia”. There is strong opposition to the pipeline in the US Congress, including representatives from both major parties. The article cites relevant criticisms of influential congressmen – Republicans Michael McCall and Ted Cruz and Democrats Bob Menendez and Jeanne Sheikhin. Fox News gives the floor to Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who claims Nord Stream-2 “threatens America’s energy independence”.
“Unfortunately, Joe Biden is interested in turning off American energy sources (meaning the Keystone oil pipeline. – Ed.), and at the same time allows Russian gas to be pumped to Germany”, the prosecutor said.
Earlier on the website of the same channel, the former US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell made a speech, accusing Joe Biden of fighting the construction of the gas pipeline only “in words”, while Germany, according to him, is turning away from the “Western Alliance”.
“The sanctions have already been lifted. The Germans celebrate the imminent receipt of Russian gas. This is a disaster”, said Grenell, who, while serving as ambassador to President Trump, according to the American publication Politico, put forward to Germany” a number of daring demands”.
Senator Ted Cruz, quoted by Reuters, also agrees with Grenell. The agreement between Biden and Merkel is “a landmark geopolitical victory for Putin and a disaster for the United States and our allies,” he said. Cruz and other senators from both parties are “angry with the Democratic president” for lifting the sanctions against Nord Stream-2, the agency said.
Ted Cruz’s anger is understandable, because back in December 2020, he expressed confidence that Nord Stream 2 would not be completed due to US sanctions.
Bloomberg publishes an article titled “Republicans May Still Try to Destroy Nord Stream-2”. The author accuses President Biden of “simply pleasing Moscow, receiving practically nothing in return.” The article reports that “some Republican congressmen, led by Senator Pat Toomey, are considering a maneuver that will help bury the deal with Germany.”
Newsweek magazine writes: “Joe Biden gave Vladimir Putin a huge victory on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.”
For years, Democrats and their dependent media have accused Donald Trump of being a corrupt agent of Vladimir Putin, the author notes. However, the irony is that Trump was a real hawk towards the Russian Federation. He has “bolstered the missile defenses in Central and Eastern Europe, which the Obama administration undermined in its ill-fated Russian” reset.
“He has repeatedly and resolutely supported America’s former allies behind the Iron Curtain, in particular with a powerful Reagan-style foreign policy speech in 2017 in Warsaw aimed directly at Moscow. He unilaterally withdrew the United States from some bilateral and multilateral agreements, such as the Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, ”the author recalls. Trump has vigorously opposed Nord Stream-2, which “will allow the Kremlin to simultaneously crowd out growing US natural gas exports and threaten energy sufficiency like a sword of Damocles hanging over vulnerable European heads”, the article said.
And now Biden is giving the green light to this gas pipeline, and even immediately after he made a “regrettable decision” to revoke permission to build the Keystone pipeline in the United States, the author of the article complains. The Biden administration is a “rambling and absurd mess”, and furthermore, Biden and his political party “never cared much” about American natural gas producers and exporters, the magazine said.
But the main reason for Biden’s policy towards Nord Stream 2 is his desire to “appease Merkel and bring Germany a major and clear geopolitical victory,” the author believes. The real capital of the EU is not in Brussels, but in Berlin, he further explains his thought. And the “modern left-wing globalists”, to which the author counts the US Democratic Party, are eager to strengthen the EU and keep it as “an exemplary transnational organization.” In addition, liberal regimes in Europe such as Germany and Belgium will benefit from the work of Nord Stream-2, and nationalists such as Poland and Hungary, as well as the United States, will lose, the author concludes.
A more balanced point of view is given in the article “The Russian Pipeline Turned into a Lightning Rod” published in the Foreign Policy magazine. The article notes that as a result of the construction of Nord Stream 2, “relations between the United States and Ukraine have been spoiled, American lawmakers are angry at US President Joe Biden, as well as at each other, and East Europeans are angry at Germany.”
Depending on who you ask about the topic, the Biden-Merkel deal will be described as “a crushing blow to Europe’s energy security, a clever diplomatic solution to rescue relations with Berlin, the Kremlin’s dangerous appeasement and Ukraine’s betrayal, or an unpleasant deal with which Europe, nevertheless, will be able to find a way to live in the long term, ”the authors of the article note.
An article in American Conservative magazine contrasts sharply with the above publications, the author of which reasonably notes that America’s attempts to interfere with the construction of Nord Stream 2 were “a mistaken and short-sighted policy, doomed to failure,” and President Biden that the almost completed pipeline can no longer be stopped. “
Dmitry Strauss, Ukraine.ru