MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Russia welcomes the intention of the United States to give up sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"President Putin is aware of those announcements made by Washington, and the Russian side welcomes such announcements," he said when asked about Putin’s reaction to reports that the US has given up sanctions against Nord Stream 2.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five countries - Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, thus bypassing transit countries of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic states. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. Gazprom's European partners in the project are Germany’s Wintershall and Uniper, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie and Royal Dutch Shell.