A ship linked to the Iranian regime’s illicit activities is currently being repurposed to engage in work on a contested Russian-German gas pipeline that has been heavily sanctioned by bipartisan coalitions in Washington, D.C., and is broadly opposed across Europe. The U.S. government has information indicating Russia may attempt to acquire and modify the Oceanic 5000, a crane ship based in Spain’s Canary Islands, for work on the contested Nord Stream 2 pipeline, according to current and former U.S. officials working on the issue. The Oceanic 5000 is known to U.S. officials for helping the Iranian regime build gas pipelines in the Persian Gulf. A senior Trump administration official confirmed the ship’s ties…
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Congress to target Russian pipeline in defense bill
HALIFAX, Canada ― Congress’s must-pass defense policy bill will be the vehicle to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s $11 billion project to deliver natural gas to Europe via a new pipeline from Russia to Germany, a top U.S. lawmaker revealed Friday. Sanctions on companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline have been added to the draft 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch told Defense News on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum. The inclusion of the sanctions in the bill is a strong sign, but House and Senate lawmakers have yet to reach a final deal on the massive bill. Continue reading the…
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Three months left to kill Nord Stream 2
Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act has received overwhelming bipartisan support and proposes targeted sanctions to halt completion of Nord Stream 2, Russia President Vladimir Putin’s natural gas pipeline designed to control Europe. But there has been a procedural delay and time is running out. The act targets sanctions against one company, Allseas, which is providing a critical deep-sea pipe-laying vessel to install Nord Stream 2 on behalf of Gazprom, and it is only three months away from finishing the job unless it is stopped. “There is emerging consensus about placing this sanctions bill in the defense budget bill called the National Defense Authorization Act,” said Daniel Vajdich, whose firm Yorktown Solutions advises…
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Nord Stream 2: Falling at the Last Fence?
Thanks to interventions by Washington or Brussels, Nord Stream 2 may end up either not being completed or, once completed, find that much of the pipeline cannot in fact be used. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline project has been subject to immense controversy ever since President Putin launched the project in tandem with his German business partners in June 2015. Contrary to the desires of the German government, most of the Central and Eastern European EU member states have come out against the pipeline. The EU itself has formally extended EU energy law to import pipelines such as Nord Stream 2, while the Polish authorities have launched antitrust proceedings against the project.…
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Finish the Fight: A Washington-Brussels Double Play Can Still Stop Nord Stream 2
The Washington Nationals’ ubiquitous World Series victory slogan, “fight finished,” has been draped across every corner of the US capital for weeks. At the same time, a second, unfinished fight that for years has united lawmakers in both parties has hit a critical phase. On October 30, officials at the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) issued a final construction permit for the deployment of the Kremlin-conceived Nord Stream 2 pipeline within Denmark’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Danish permit should not be viewed as a tacit approval of the project’s merits. In fact, Danish officials have been public with their concerns about the pipeline’s negative impact—especially for Ukraine’s strategic stability—and resisted the project…
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Senator Cruz Says U.S. Has Ability To Halt Nord Stream 2
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has said that the United States still has the ability to halt construction of a planned pipeline to send Russian natural gas to Germany, even as the project nears completion. Russia has said it expects to complete the 1,220-kilometer-long Nord Stream 2 project running under the Baltic Sea by the end of the year. Continue reading the article on the Radio Free Europe news website.
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Breiter Konsens gegen Nord Stream 2
Der demokratische US-Senator Chris Murphy erklärt, warum sein Land Sanktionen gegen Nord Stream 2 plant – und warum ihn die Debatte in Berlin überrascht. In den USA gibt es nicht mehr viele politische Themen, bei denen sich Republikaner und Demokraten einig sind. Doch kurz vor der Sommerpause billigte der Auswärtige Ausschuss des US-Senats bei nur zwei Gegenstimmen einen Gesetzentwurf, der „Europas Energiesicherheit schützen“ soll. Dieser sieht Sanktionen gegen Firmen vor, die am Bau der Pipeline Nord Stream 2 beteiligt sind. In der Ablehnung des Projekts gebe es in den USA einen „breiten überparteilichen Konsens“, sagte der demokratische Senator von Connecticut, Chris Murphy, am Dienstag in Berlin. „Viele Republikaner und Demokranten wünschen sich,…
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U.S. Efforts To Derail Russian Pipelines To Europe Have Failed Since The 1960s. Will Nord Stream 2 Be Any Different?
U.S. President Donald Trump will fly to Europe later this month to pursue a goal his predecessors going back to John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan failed to achieve — derailing a Kremlin-backed energy-export pipeline. The Trump administration and the U.S. Congress are fighting to block the 9.5 billion-euro ($10.6 billion) Nord Stream 2 project amid fears it will make NATO allies and other European countries more reliant on Russian energy and damage Ukraine by depriving it of transit fees. Continue reading the article on the Radio Free Europe news website.
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US-Sanktionsdrohungen gefährden Nord Stream 2
Berlin, Washington Donald Trump hat gerade eine Europareise angekündigt. Vom 31. August bis zum 3. September wird der US-Präsident Dänemark und Polen besuchen – und um Deutschland einen Bogen machen. Die besondere Botschaft, die hinter diesem Reiseprogramm steckt, ist nicht schwer zu entschlüsseln: Die US-Regierung will ein Zeichen gegen die Ostseepipeline Nord Stream 2 setzen – Dänemark und Polen gehören in Europa zu den entschiedensten Gegnern der Projekts. Continue reading the article published on the Handelsblatt new website.
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Senate panel backs Nord Stream 2 pipeline sanctions bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate committee passed a bill on Wednesday to slap sanctions on companies and individuals involved in building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that the Trump administration says would strengthen Moscow’s economic grip on Europe. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the “Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act,” by a vote of 20 to 2. The bill, which reflects some lawmakers’ concerns over Russian influence in Europe, would still need to pass the full Senate and House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump into law. Continue reading the article published on the Reuters news website.
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Not Only Geopolitics: U.S. Threatens Sanctions Over Russian Nord Stream 2 Project
If Republicans and Democrats from the Trump administration and the U.S. Congress, which stand on different sides of the political barricade, can unite their forces, they may speak with one voice when criticizing Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2 energy pipeline project. In May, bipartisan efforts were made to intensify work on sanctions targeted at entities involved in building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany while U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry declared in Brussels and Kiev that introducing a restrictions package is just a matter of time. Continue reading the article on the Warsaw Institute news website.
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Schroeder says U.S. pressure on Denmark main reason for Nord Stream 2 delay
U.S. political pressure on Denmark is the main reason for delays on construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe, project chairman Gerhard Schroeder said on Friday. The project has come under fire from the United States and several eastern European, Nordic and Baltic Sea countries, which fear that it will increase the European Union’s reliance on Russian gas, as reported by Reuters. Former German chancellor Schroeder argued that U.S. gas is more expensive than Russian gas and would be a bad choice for Europe, adding that looming elections in Denmark offer hope that Nord Stream 2 will be finished on time. Continue reading the article on the…
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US Congress eyes sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline
Rick Perry, the US energy secretary, on Tuesday said he expected Congress to pass a measure that would impose sanctions on Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, a project that critics say could be used by the Kremlin as a political weapon. “The opposition to Nord Stream 2 is still very much alive and well in the United States,” Mr Perry said in Kiev, where he was attending the inauguration of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr Perry said the Senate and House would pass a bill that Mr Trump would approve. “It is going to go to the president and he is going to sign it,” the…
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Die Amerikaner wollen Nord Stream 2 stoppen – warum sie damit Erfolg haben könnten
Das deutsch-russische Pipelineprojekt Nord Stream 2 ist Donald Trump ein Dorn im Auge. Die USA künden daher neue Sanktionen an. Können die Amerikaner die Fertigstellung der Röhre in letzter Sekunde bremsen? Die wichtigsten Antworten im Überblick. Für Donald Trump ist klar: Europäisches Geld darf keine russischen Pipelines finanzieren. Der amerikanische Präsident ist daher einer der erbittertsten Gegner des deutsch-russischen Pipelineprojekts Nord Stream 2. Und Trump ist nicht der einzige Amerikaner, der die Röhre verhindern will. Continue reading the article on the Neue Zürcher Zeitung news website.
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Sanctions bill on Nord Stream 2 coming soon: U.S. energy secretary
KIEV (Reuters) – United States Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Tuesday that a sanctions bill putting onerous restrictions on companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 project would come in the “not too distant future”. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project has come under fire from the United States and several eastern European, Nordic and Baltic Sea countries which fear it will increase the European Union’s reliance on Russian gas. Continue reading the article on the Reuters news website.
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U.S. Senate Threatens Sanctions Over Russian Pipeline
Washington and Berlin face off again over Nord Stream 2 as European ships are targeted. In the latest uptick of trans-Atlantic tensions, European ships involved in the construction of a controversial gas pipeline from Russia to Germany could be subject to U.S. sanctions under a new bipartisan bill that will be introduced in the U.S. Senate as early as Monday. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, would sanction companies involved in laying deep-sea pipelines for Russian energy projects, taking direct aim at the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which has emerged as a major source of tension between the United States and Germany. Foreign…
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U.S. House passes bill to lure Europeans away from Nord Stream 2
WASHINGTON, March 26 (WNM staff/TASS) – The House of Representatives of the US Congress voted on Monday for the bill on assisting Central and Eastern European countries to diversify energy supplies sources for countering Russia’s influence, with 391 and 24 congressmen voting for and against the bill, respectively. A live broadcast of the voting was provided by the C-SPAN TV channel. The bill must be passed by the Senate and then be signed by the President to become law. The authors of the draft law suggest that it is necessary for the US to assist “Central and Eastern European countries to reduce their dependence on energy resources from countries that…
