MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. Sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 project discussed in Congress are designed to directly hit the German economy, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"The aggressive pressure, this is exactly as we qualify it, applied by Washington on their European allies, Germany in the first instance, for the purpose of disrupting construction of the Nord Stream 2 is certainly an unprecedented fact for transatlantic relations. Sanctions discussed in the United States Congress are called to directly hit exactly the German economy," the diplomat said. "A response to them, whether at the national or the pan-European level, is certainly a sovereign decision of Berlin and the European Union countries," she added.

Russia expects further support for the project from the German government, Zakharova noted. "We assume that all its parties will be able to meet their contractual obligations in full scope and all the states interested in the new pipeline will show the political will required for implementation of this initiative, strategically important for reliable energy support of united Europe," she added.

In any case, "the situation unfolding is a serious challenge for the EU from the foreign policy aspect and from the viewpoint of security of its market for foreign investments," the diplomat said.

It was reported earlier that US lawmakers introduced a bill expanding sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project to the Senate for review.

The Nord Stream 2 project envisages construction of two gas pipeline strings with the total capacity of 55 bln cubic meters per year from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. The gas pipeline is 93% complete to date.