Daniel Kawczynski said in the lower house of the British parliament: “Now, no longer constrained by our membership of the European Union, we ought to follow our American friends in imposing sanctions on any company involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.”
The controversial link that Russia is building to Germany under the Baltic Sea while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine, is “extremely dangerous, because it puts our NATO partners at great additional pressure from Moscow,” Kawczynski said.
He added that the project would make Britain’s allies “susceptible to additional energy blackmail, which the Russians have used so successfully in the past.”
The US has urged European allies and private firms to halt work that could help build the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as it readies new sanctions on the project, according to a report last month.
The Reuters news agency reported at the end of December that the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump was preparing a fresh round of congressionally mandated sanctions that were expected to be put in place over the next few weeks.
The news agency cited Trump administration officials as saying that the move could deal a fatal blow to the Nord Stream 2 project, which is 90 percent complete and led by Russian state gas giant Gazprom.
The news agency also reported that Russia in December resumed work to build the EUR 9.5 billion (USD 11.6 billion) pipeline after a one-year pause due to previous US sanctions.
A US State Department official said earlier last month that the United States would continue to use sanctions as a tool against Nord Stream 2, according to a report at the time by energetyka24.com.
The US Congress in December passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included legislation sanctioning any companies that provide upgrading services for vessels working on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline or that provide insurance and certification services for the project, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
In October, the United States targeted companies “providing services or facilities for upgrades or installation of equipment” for vessels participating in the construction of Nord Stream 2 and companies funding those upgrades and installations.
The pipeline is designed to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
(jh/pk)
Source: Energetyka 24