United States lawmakers have removed the sanctions provision against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from the country’s agreed defense budget for the coming fiscal year. This is stated in a document published by the relevant committee of the House of Representatives.
It is known that before that, the sanctioners demanded that these restrictions be included in the defense bill, which is usually adopted by a broad consensus of both parties, and even temporarily blocked its adoption due to the absence of these sanctions.
In turn, the White House, which opposes sanctions against the company – the pipeline operator, this step was criticized by the Republicans.
In addition, according to the text of the bill, the US defense budget also did not include sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt.
Earlier, on December 3, the Axios portal wrote that the fierce disputes on Capitol Hill between opponents and lobbyists of Nord Stream 2 could leave the United States without a defense budget for next year. At the same time, it was noted that the US defense budget for the next financial year must be adopted by December 31.
On the same day, the Prime Minister of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Manuela Schwezig, criticized the preparation of the US sanctions against companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project. She called the unreasonable policy of Washington, which either acts as a comrade-in-arms of the FRG, then changes its views.
On November 30, Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, stressed that Russia sees no problem in the outrage of US congressmen over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, since, according to him, the US legislature has nothing to do with the project.
On November 29, GOP representatives in the US Senate unanimously blocked next year’s defense budget. Before the vote, Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned that party members would block the draft document, since the Democrats did not want to submit their proposals to it. In particular, the initiative assumed the imposition of additional sanctions against Nord Stream 2. The proposal caused extreme irritation among Democratic senators.
The construction of SP-2 was completed on September 10. It was built from Russia to Germany along the Baltic seabed with the aim of direct gas supplies to Europe. The EU countries mainly support the project and participate in its implementation. The Baltic states, Poland, the United States and Ukraine are opposed.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
