MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. The US and its allies long ago turned Nord Stream 2 into an instrument for applying pressure on Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.
"Nord Stream 2 turned into an instrument for applying pressure on Moscow in the hands of the US and some other actors outside the US long ago," he said.
Speaking about the statements made by certain western countries and the US around the gas pipeline, Ryabkov slammed them as a "political circus," adding that European countries are independent in defining their own interests.
"This reflects the fundamentals of Europe, NATO, and the EU, where far from any self-sufficiency and independence, there is not even any attempt to assess their own interests and somehow properly weigh them in the long term," Deputy Minister noted.
US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a meeting in Washington on Monday. The US leader claimed there would be no advancement of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, should Moscow launch an invasion of Ukraine. Scholz evaded a direct answer to the question about the future of the gas pipeline, stating that the West’s actions would be "closely coordinated.".