MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. The United States’ sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are an uncovered cowboy attack or a hostile takeover, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"This is an absolutely uncovered cowboy attack or a hostile takeover. <...> How else could this be called?" Peskov said commenting on the sanctions against Nord Stream 2.

Peskov stressed that the work on the gas pipeline was underway and this project was about to be completed.

He also noted that Russia lived in "an unfriendly and even hostile environment" and the entire outgoing year the country had to face "new and new so-called sanctions."

The Nord Stream 2 project contemplates 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. The construction was suspended in December 2019 when the Swiss pipe-laying company Allseas stopped the works due to US sanctions. However, on December 11, 2020 the works resumed.

On December 23, 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.