January 19, 2021, 7:20 p.m.
January 19, 2021, 7:20 p.m.
Update: January 19, 2021, 7:23 p.m.
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Washington (dpa) In the end, the Trump administration carries out its sanction threats against Nord Stream 2. The reason: Russia could abuse the gas pipeline. For the first time, the main investor no longer sounds entirely confident.
The Russian pipe-laying ship “Fortuna” is to be imposed with sanctions from the USA.
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On its last day in office, the Trump administration took the Nord Stream 2 seriously after many threats: “The US is today imposing sanctions on the Russian company KVT-RUS and declaring the ship” Fortuna “to be blocked property,” said the US State Department on Tuesday with.
This is the first time the US government has punished a company for participating in the construction of the German-Russian gas pipeline on the basis of the sanctions laws against Nord Stream 2.
The consequences of being classified as “blocked property” as long as the “Fortuna” is not in US territorial waters is unclear. The ship left Wismar last Thursday and was last in front of Rostock for days. Actually, the Danish authorities had announced laying work for last Friday with the participation of “Fortuna” south of the Danish island of Bornholm.
The US State Department justified the sanctions by saying that the completion of Nord Stream 2 would open up the possibility for Russia to “use natural resources as a means of political pressure and malicious influence against Western Europe”. The notice said the US would consider further punitive measures in the near future.
The step had become apparent. The US embassy in Berlin had previously informed the federal government of the upcoming announcement. Nord Stream 2 had announced that the companies involved were still working towards completion. One does not comment on the possible effects of sanctions. It is the task of European governments and the EU Commission to «protect companies operating in Europe from illegal extraterritorial sanctions».
Russia was also unimpressed by the announcements. Moscow intends to “continue the continuous work on the completion of this project,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov of the Interfax agency. The Russian state agency Tass, on the other hand, quoted from a paper for investors, according to which the Russian gas monopoly and main investor Gazprom can no longer rule out a “complete failure” of the project because of political pressure. The German energy company and pipeline investor Uniper is still behind the project. The company told the German Press Agency on Tuesday afternoon that they were convinced that the pipeline would be finished.
Even the sanction threats of the past had an effect. For example, the threat of fines meant that the Swiss company Allseas, which had laid pipes in the Baltic Sea with special ships, stopped work at the end of 2019. The Norwegian certification company DNV GL confirmed the withdrawal from the project on Monday.
According to the “Bild” newspaper, the German company Bilfinger has also withdrawn. At the end of 2017, Bilfinger was awarded the contract for control and safety systems to operate the pipeline between Russia and Germany. The order volume was more than 15 million euros. Bilfinger was also responsible for the construction of a heating center to preheat natural gas at the landing point in Lubmin. The company did not comment on the report when asked by the dpa.
The US is up against the gas pipeline because it sees its partners in Europe as being too dependent on Russia. They are supported by Eastern European countries such as Poland and the Baltic countries. Critics accuse the US, on the other hand, of only wanting to sell their liquid gas better in Europe.
The chairman of the Bundestag economic committee and left-wing politician Klaus Ernst had questioned their effectiveness after the announcement of the sanctions that had now been imposed and called for countermeasures, such as punitive tariffs on US gas imports.
Oliver Hermes, chairman of the Eastern Committee, had called the announced measures “patronizing important allies by the USA in the style of” America First “”. Repeated calls from German politicians to stop the pipeline due to the “general political weather situation” were rejected and referred to investment security and the available permits.
The spokesman for the US embassy in Berlin had also linked the rejection of the pipeline to the arrest of the Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny in Russia. It is “another clear sign that Russia’s behavior is not changing, and we continue to hope that Germany will reassess its position on the pipeline.”
In the course of a planned declaration on the case of the Russian opposition politician, the European Parliament could also demand the end of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. According to information on Tuesday, the Greens group requested that a corresponding passage be included in the text.
According to Gazprom, 94 percent of the pipeline has already been completed. It consists of two strings of pipeline, each around 1,230 kilometers long, and is expected to transport an additional 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to Germany every year.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210119-99-78467 / 9
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