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US to continue to impose sanctions against Russian companies over Nord Stream 2 — Sullivan

According to Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden will continue to impose restrictions against Russian organizations participating in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline every 90 days
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan
© AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

NEW YORK CITY, June 20. /TASS/. The United States will continue to impose sanctions against RUssian companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.

"We have, in fact, sanctioned several Russian entities when it comes to Nord Stream 2," he told CNN. "We waived sanctions only on 2, and they were not Russian. It was a German individual and a Swiss company…When President Biden took office, Nord Stream 2 was 90% complete. That happened under the Trump administration. The question to us was will we go after, directly, using our sanctions power, our European allies and friends, and there, President Biden said I’m not prepared to do that." According to Sullivan, Biden will continue to impose restrictions against Russian organizations participating in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline every 90 days.

Nord Stream 2 is an international project for the construction of a gas pipeline that will run across the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to Germany bypassing transit states, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic countries.

The new 1,230-kilometer pipeline, basically following the same route as Nord Stream, traverses the economic zones and territorial water of five countries, namely Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.

Works under the project were suspended in December 2019 after Allseas, a Swiss company laying the pipes for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, suspended pipe-laying works over possible US sanctions and recalled its ships. Works were resumed in December 2020.

On May 21, 2021, the United States imposed sanctions against 13 ships and three Russian organizations taking part in the project. On May 19, US Secretary of State Antoy Blinken confirmmed that Washington had waived restrictions against Nord Strean 2 AG, the project operator, and its managing director, Matthias Warnig, which, in his words, was in the United States' national interests.

The Russian side has repeatedly stressed that Nord Stream 2 is not a commercial project and is being implemented jointly with European partners. Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov expressed resentment over attempts of a number of countries to link the future of the project to politically-motivated circumstances.

Germany considers Nords Stream 2 as an economic project and supports it.