A group of US Senate Republicans has introduced legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on Nord Stream 2, a Russian-backed natural gas pipeline that opponents believe would be harmful to US allies in Europe, Report informs referring to Reuters.
The six lawmakers, led by Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered the measure as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a sweeping defense policy bill that is one of the few pieces of major legislation Congress passes every year.
President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this year reached an agreement that allows the pipeline that will take Russian gas to Germany to proceed.
Ukraine has long opposed the nearly completed $11 billion project because it will give Moscow the theoretical option to stop routing gas via Ukraine, which would deprive Kyiv of billions of dollars in lucrative transit fees and, it says, imperil its security.
Earlier, Washington refused to completely block the project, and Germany promised to help extend the transit time for Russian gas through Ukraine and join the sanctions that will be imposed if Russia starts using the issue of energy supplies to put pressure on other countries.
To commission the pipeline, it is necessary to obtain the approval of the German and then the European regulator. In Germany, this is planned to be done by January 8, 2022, then the European Commission will consider it within two months. The latter has the right to extend the term for another two months - until May 8, 2022.
Gazprom expects that the issue will be resolved positively, taking into account the tense situation in Europe with gas supplies: an acute shortage of fuel and skyrocketing prices for gas and other types of energy resources.
At the same time, Europe and the US will continue to put pressure on Russia in order not to exclude the gas transmission network of Ukraine from the supply of natural gas from Russia to Europe.