MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s (lower house) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky is hoping that the German leadership will not let US sanctions affect the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, the member of parliament told TASS on Saturday, underlining that these sanctions hurt European interests.

"US economic sanctions is a tool of illegal pressure and unjust competition. Using these crooked methods Washington is trying to impose its own interests, often at the expense of its partners. I have repeatedly said this - Europe needs to wake up and smell the coffee," he stressed.

"So far, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statements regarding extraterritorial US sanctions against the pipeline project can be described as encouraging. I hope that action will follow through her words and German countermeasures won’t let anything hurt Nord Stream 2," the politician concluded.

The MP also agreed that the recently achieved agreements between Russia and Ukraine on gas transit clearly demonstrate that Moscow is honoring obligations and is not considering gas supplies as a leverage tool.

Merkel earlier announced that German does not tolerate extraterritorial sanctions, be it measures against Nord Stream 2 or Iran. She also noted that she does not see any other ways but holding talks with the US to underline that such steps are inadmissible.

The US Congress approved the Defense Spending Bill for 2020 fiscal year that requires the US administration to introduce sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream Russian gas pipelines. On December 11, the House of Representatives backed the document, while US President Donald Trump signed it into force on Friday. A European Commission spokesperson told reporters on Saturday that the EU opposes US sanctions against European enterprises doing legal business.