BERLIN, May 8. /TASS/. Russia’s Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev was hopeful that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would have been constructed by the Bundestag election scheduled for September 26, but the weather conditions would be of huge importance, Nechayev said in an interview with the German media group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), which was published on Saturday.
"I do hope that it will be ready before the Bundestag election. The weather is crucial for the project to be completed. If it is fine, we will advance faster," the Russian diplomat said. "The work is ongoing, and there are just nearly 100 kilometers to go," Nechayev pointed out.
The ambassador recalled that Moscow had been cooperating with Germany on gas supplies for more than 50 years.
"It worked even during the worst times of the Cold War. And now the question is whether we want to bury 10 billion euros on the sea floor. It should be decided by Europe," Nechayev stressed.
Nord Stream-2 is an international project for the construction of a gas pipeline that will run on the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to Germany. The new 1,200 kilometer pipeline’s capacity will be 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
The construction was suspended in December 2019 after Allseas, a Swiss company laying the pipes for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, suspended pipe-laying work over possible US sanctions and recalled its ships. The construction resumed in December 2020 after a year-long break. To date, 95% of the pipeline’s overall length have been laid.