US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has demanded that the companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline stop this work, RIA Novosti reports.
“The State Department reiterates the warning that any organization that is involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline risks US sanctions and must immediately stop work on the pipeline,” Blinken said in a written statement.
He added that the State Department is monitoring efforts to complete the pipeline and evaluating information regarding the companies participating in it.
“As various US administrations have said, this pipeline is a geopolitical project of Russia, the goal of which is to divide Europe and weaken Europe’s energy security,” Blinken said.
Nord Stream 2 envisages the construction of two lines of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The project is actively opposed by the United States, which is promoting its liquefied natural gas to the EU, as well as Ukraine and a number of European countries. The United States imposed sanctions on the gas pipeline in December 2019, as a result of which the Swiss Allseas was forced to stop laying.