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Russian energy chief blasts ‘absurd’ US bill to sanction Nord Stream 2 investors

On Wednesday, Senator John Barrasso introduced a bill to slap sanctions on investors in Russian energy export projects, including the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project

© Stefan Sauer/dpa via AP

KHABAROVSK, July 20. /TASS/. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has castigated a US bill on introducing sanctions against investors of the Nord Stream 2 project, branding it absurd and illogical.

"I did not see this proposed legislation, it should be studied from a legal point of view. It is quite a ludicrous bill that will invalidate all market rules. In my opinion, it is absurd and strange," he told reporters.

Read also

Nord Stream 2 hopes project won’t be vulnerable to politics

On Wednesday, Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, introduced a bill to slap sanctions on investors in Russian energy export projects, including the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. The proposed legislation includes restrictive measures against parties investing in Russian energy export projects, providing guarantees for loans to carry out these projects, or supplying goods and services for such a project to the Russian side. The bill also contains steps to promote exports of natural gas from the United States.

Nord Stream 2 is a project to expand the existing Nord Stream main gas pipeline, connecting Russia and Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, bypassing the transit states of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic countries. In general, the pipeline mirrors the Nord Stream route, and will pass through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five states - Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Its length will be more than 1,200 km, and its throughput capacity will be 55 bln cubic meters of gas per year. Nord Stream 2 is scheduled for commissioning by the end of 2019.

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