MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project will be implemented if European Union countries, who benefit from it, start acting according to their own economic interests and defend them from US influence, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said.

"If the Germans, the Dutch, the people of Denmark and other countries who are interested in receiving Russian gas are allowed to act according to their interests, we will definitely succeed in everything," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel. "If those countries <...> manage to separate economy from politics <…> and start acting according to their economic interests, protecting them from US political infringements, the project will succeed."

At the same time, Kosachev sees the possibility of Brussels imposing new retroactive restrictions against the pipeline project.

The Nord Stream 2 project involves construction of two lines with a total capacity of 55 bln cubic meters of gas per year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. Gazprom’s European partners in the project are German Uniper and Wintershall, Austrian OMV, French Engie and Anglo-Dutch Shell. The pipeline bypasses transit states - Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and other East European and Baltic countries - through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.

Gazprom expects the pipeline to be launched at the end of 2020. The project is 93% completed to date.

The Switzerland-based Allseas, which laid pipes for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, suspended its pipelay activities and withdrew vessels involved in the project due to the threat of the US’ sanctions in late December 2019.