ST. PETERSBURG, May 24. /TASS/. Attempts to halt implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project will continue but they will not prevent its development, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said in an interview with TASS on Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
"Politicizing around this process will continue and there is no way around its opponents. However, these feeble efforts are unable to stop the project. I am confident that the Nord Stream 2 will take place," Chizhov said.
The US statements on plans to impose sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project sound as a threat to use force, the official said. "This sounds as a threat, if you will, as force use," he noted.
"I can say that it is not Pompeo who started it. The notorious law on retaliation measures against America’s ‘enemies’ using sanctions directly mentions an instruction of lawmakers, meaning Congress, the US administration saying that the administration should work against the Nord Stream 2 project," the diplomat said.
Europe definitely needs the gas pipeline and there should not be any doubts in feasibility of building it.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019. The pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The new pipeline will double the capacity of the first stretch and will basically follow its route. The total cost of the pipeline is estimates at 9.5 bln euros.
The gas pipeline route crosses territorial waters of Russia and Germany and exclusive economic zones of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Germany and Finland already issued all the required permits for the project.