“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is analysing information about the intention of the US administration to withdraw from imposing sanctions on companies building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline,” Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk, deputy Foreign Minister announced.
If not stopped, Nord Stream 2 will keep Putin in power: Poland’s PM
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According to the Axios.com website, citing its sources, “the [Joe] Biden administration will waive sanctions on the corporate entity and CEO overseeing the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany” in order to not undermine the US relations with the country. Sanctions would, however, affect Russian ships participating in the construction.
“We have received these reports, we are currently verifying them, but it is still too early to comment on them,” the deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
President Biden has been criticised by Republican senators for reportedly changing his attitude towards the pipeline.
“If the reports from Axios are correct, it would indicate that the president’s administration never intended to oppose the completion of this pipeline,” Michael McCaul, leading Republican representative from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives said.
“This pipeline is not any ordinary commercial project that could affect our relationship with the government in Berlin. This is a Russian project of insidious interference that threatens to deepen Europe’s energy dependence on Russia,” he stressed.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse accused President Biden of giving Vladimir Putin “a means of strategic pressure in Europe.”
According to the spokesman of the US State Department, in a telephone conversation with the head of German diplomacy Heiko Maas, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the US is against the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
The construction of the Russian-German gas pipeline is strongly opposed by Poland, the Baltic States, and the US. Critics of Nord Stream 2 indicate that the project would increase Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and extend the Kremlin’s influence over European politics.