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Washington lashes out at Nord Stream-2 to force EU into buying US LNG — Russian embassy

The Russian embassy recalled similar measures by Ronald Reagan, which turned out to be "totally useless"

WASHINGTON, May 24. /TASS/. The continued US criticism of Russia’s Nord Stream-2 project is aimed at forcing Europe into buying US-made liquefied natural gas (LNG), the Russian Embassy in Washington said in response to the US secretary of state’s earlier statements on the issue.

"By attacking the Nord Stream-2, Washington is imposing its non-competitive liquefied natural gas on Europe. Once again, geopolitics interferes into economy in a most obvious way to make a sham of calls to diversify supplies," the embassy said.

"The idol of today’s Republicans, [40th US president] Ronald Reagan also opposed the construction of a Soviet gas pipeline to Germany in early 80s. His administration imposed sanctions on companies engaged in this project. The reason was the same - to prevent Russia from gaining more clout among US allies in Europe," the embassy statement reads.

"Reagan was wise enough to cancel his sanctions a couple of years later, because they were totally useless," the statement continues. "We hope that it would take the present administration less time to draw conclusions from history."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a congressional testimony earlier this week that the United States opposes Nord Stream-2, which Washington belives may give Moscow an additional leverage over Europe. He said the United States "should continue to push for the Nord Stream-2 to be ended" in order to prevent Europe’s increased reliance on energy supplies from Russia.

Nord Stream-2 is an international project for the construction of a gas pipeline that will run across the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to Germany bypassing transit states, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic countries.

The new 1,200 kilometer pipeline, basically following the same route as Nord Stream, will traverse economic zones and territorial water of five countries, namely Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. The pipeline’s capacity will be 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year and it is planned to be commissioned in late 2019.