The State Department assessed the effectiveness of US sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. State Department spokesman Ned Price said this, Interfax reports.
According to him, the new US administration believes that the current strategy is working well, and the measures taken against the project are working. Price, answering the question of whether the team of US President Joe Biden is trying to appropriate the achievements of the previous government, which also actively imposed sanctions against Nord Stream 2, noted that both administrations have a similar approach to this issue.
Earlier, Price explained the reason for the US rejection of Nord Stream 2. He stated that the United States opposes the project from a geopolitical point of view. The spokesman for the State Department stressed that the gas pipeline, if completed, will provide Russia with leverage over the closest partners of the States in Europe, which worries Washington.
On February 22, the US expanded sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The Ministry of Finance has added to another sanctions list the pipe-laying ship Fortuna, which is engaged in the construction of the gas pipeline. Also, restrictions under the law “On the Protection of Energy Security of Europe” have been imposed on the owner of the ship, the company “KBT-Rus”.
Nord Stream 2 is a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, laid along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. It was supposed to be put into operation at the end of 2019, but the completion of construction had to be postponed due to US sanctions. Construction is hindered in Washington as American liquefied natural gas (LNG) competes with Russian pipeline fuel for the European market
Currently, Nord Stream 2 is 95 percent complete.