Republicans from the US Senate Banking Committee sent a letter to Minister Janet Yellen, in which they demanded to impose new sanctions against Nord Stream-2. The gas pipeline will “strengthen the harmful influence” of Russia, they believe
A group of US senators has threatened to block the approval of two candidates for positions in the US Treasury if President Joe Biden does not change his position on the Russian gas pipeline “Nord Stream-2” and does not impose new sanctions against the project. This is reported by Bloomberg with reference to a letter from Republican Pat Toomey and his 11 fellow party members from the Senate Banking Committee.
“The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline directly harms the national security interests of the United States, our allies and partners,” says the message sent to Secretary Janet Yellen. According to lawmakers, if completed, the project will “strengthen the harmful influence of Vladimir Putin on Europe, destabilize the fragile security of Ukraine and will contribute to further Russian aggression”.
The senators insist that the restrictions be imposed under the CAATSA law (“On Countering America’s Adversaries through sanctions”). Otherwise, they intend to oppose the appointment of Brian Nelson and Elizabeth Rosenberg to the ministry. It is assumed that they will oversee the implementation of sanctions in the Ministry of Finance.
The ministry did not respond to the agency’s request.
It is not the first time that Republicans are trying to achieve the introduction of new sanctions against the pipeline, blocking the approval of candidates for various positions. In March, Ted Cruz said that he would interfere with the appointment of the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns and First Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, but in the end the Senate approved their candidacies. In early July, sources told NBC that Cruz is preventing the approval of 13 candidates for key positions in the State Department.
On July 21, the United States and Germany issued a joint statement on the gas pipeline, which allows Russia to complete it without additional sanctions against the project participants. In particular, it says that Germany will seek to extend the contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine for another ten years after 2024, and Berlin and Washington will also help Kiev with the diversification of energy sources.
The deal caused discontent not only among Republicans, but also among Democrats, Bloomberg reports. In particular, the chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Bob Menendez, said that the agreement “does not meet” his expectations. “I still oppose the Nord Stream-2 pipeline, which will negatively affect the security of Ukraine and Europe,” he said.
The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Dmitry Kuleba, said that the deal between the United States and Germany does not solve the problem of Ukraine’s security. He noted that Kiev intends to put to the EU the question of how exactly Western countries see the implementation of the agreements reached by the United States and Germany.
The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov,in turn, noted that the agreement between Berlin and Kiev to promote the extension of the agreement on the transit of Russian gas does not mention Moscow. “I do not know how to translate this into other languages, but in Russian it is “without me I was married”, ” he said. The Kremlin representative recalled that Moscow has repeatedly said that it is ready to discuss the extension of the gas transit agreement through Ukraine after 2024.
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