The Biden administration has waived sanctions on the company and CEO overseeing the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday, saying that the decision was made in the U.S. national interest.
Blinken waived the sanctions despite Congress receiving a report on the pipeline project from the State Department, which concluded that the company Nord Stream 2 AG and its CEO Matthias Warnig, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, engaged in sanctionable activity.
State Department spokesman Ned Price has previously said however that sanctions are only “one of many tools” that can be used.
The State Department had imposed sanctions on four Russian ships, including the Akademik Cherskiy, which began pipe-laying for the project in Danish waters in April. It had also imposed the measures on five other Russian entities, including the Russian Marine Rescue Service.
“Today’s actions demonstrate the administration’s commitment to energy security in Europe, consistent with the President’s pledge to rebuild relationships with our allies and partners in Europe,” Blinken said in a press release, which was issued as he met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time in Iceland for an Arctic Council conference.
The Trump administration had previously imposed sanctions on any companies helping Russia’s state energy company Gazprom build the $11 billion pipeline to take gas under the Baltic Sea to Europe via Germany.
Former President Donald Trump opposed the project on the grounds that it would strengthen Putin’s economic and political influence over Europe. Poland has been one of the fiercest critics of the pipeline, which would sharply reduce central and Eastern European countries’ bargaining power in case of a supply dispute with Russia, which has in the past cut deliveries of the fuel to Ukraine and parts of Europe in winter during pricing disputes.
Many EU officials in Brussels have also expressed opposition to the project, hoping to reduce the bloc’s energy dependence on Russia.
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