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Sanctions may complicate construction of Nord Stream 2, Kremlin says

However, Russia and Europe are interested in the implementation of a project that is so necessary to ensure its energy security, the Kremlin spokesman said

MOSCOW, December 24. / TASS /. The existing and planned US sanctions against Nord Stream 2 are aimed at making the implementation of the project as difficult as possible and are able to do so, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, told reporters on Thursday. However, Russia and Europe are interested in the implementation of a project that is so necessary to ensure its energy security, he said.

On Wednesday, Reuters, citing senior sources in the administration of President Donald Trump, announced that the US administration plans to impose a new package of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 project. In response to the question of whether the American side has real mechanisms capable of stopping the project, Peskov said: "Of course, the restrictions that the Americans have already accepted, that they have planned in the draft defense budget, are, of course, aimed at complicating the project implementation as much as possible, a project Europe very much needs, in terms of European energy security. " "Of course, this can complicate [the implementation of the project], but at the same time, our European partners, and we are interested in the project's implementation, so that it is finalized in the interests of European consumers and Russian gas suppliers," Peskov said.

Talking about whether the Trump administration will have time to stop the project, Peskov said: "We are not inclined to read coffee grounds here." "We have our own issues to work out, and we're working on them," he said.

The Nord Stream 2 project contemplates the construction of two pipeline strings with a total capacity of 55 bln cubic meters per year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. To date, 93% of Nord Stream 2 has been finished. The construction was suspended at the end of 2019 when the Swiss pipe-laying company Allseas stopped work due to US sanctions.