“The time is running out to get something done before the pipeline is completed,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen (DN.H.), a member of the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, said Thursday. “And I think we need to act very quickly.”
The pressure campaign intensified Friday when Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took a hold on the final confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nominated CIA director William Burns, who is delaying a quick vote, to pressure the Biden government to impose additional sanctions to adjust.
“I will make my case when the Biden driver fulfills his legal obligation to report and sanction the ships and companies that build Putin’s pipeline,” Cruz posted on Twitter Friday.
The dynamics on the hill brought the White House into a diplomatic relationship. The overarching goal of the new government is to unite a united front with Germany and the rest of Europe against Russian aggression. But Germany is eager to complete the pipeline because it would offer a cheaper alternative to natural gas, meaning the US could anger an important ally if it continues with the sanctions demanded by Congress.
“We would very much like to restore our relationship with Germany after four years of abuse by the previous government,” a senior administration official said. But Congress is not emerging. We are between a rock and a difficult place. ‘
“A bad thing for Europe”
Biden himself has publicly called the pipeline a ‘bad deal for Europe’, and a sanctions package for the project continues to work through the inter-agency process, though not as fast as some lawmakers would like. Stopping Nord Stream 2 has long been a dual priority, with members of Congress claiming that the completion of the pipeline will strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin at the expense of Ukraine and other US allies.
In recent days, the Trump administration has planned to go so far as to punish German entities for their role in the project, former officials said. These entities included the German CEO of Nord Stream, Matthias Warnig, and the German vessel Krebs Geo. But in the end, they never did, but only approved the Russian pipeline vessel Fortuna and its owner KVT-RUS.
The Department of State maintained the directions in a report to Congress last month, but did not go any further – both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who say the government is required by law to remove all entities involved in the construction of the pipeline, identify and punish. includes at least seven Russian vessels.
Shaheen and Cruz were co-authors of a provision in the annual bill that imposed sanctions on those involved in the construction of the pipeline. Shaheen also joined Idaho Senator Jim Risch, the leading Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, to press Biden last month to fully implement the provision.
The State Department briefed Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff on the administration’s position on Nord Stream 2 last week, according to a Senate associate. But staff members said they did not learn anything new during the briefing, and senators themselves said they largely stayed out of the loop.
You will not like the Germans if they are angry
Several current and former officials have said the crux of the issue is how to stop the pipeline without souring relations with Germany. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken is trying to rebuild Washington’s relationship with Berlin after four years of neglect and ridicule by former President Donald Trump’s government. The relationship under Trump deteriorated so much that German Chancellor Angela Merkel famously said in 2018 that Europe could no longer rely on the US and ‘had to take its fate into its own hands’.
Europe’s director of the National Security Council, Amanda Sloat, also warned internally to take additional Nord Stream sanctions too quickly as the government works to restore US relations with Germany, officials said.
One former national security official near the White House captured the general sentiment: “Many people in government feel that the Germans have been abused, and they want to get the relationship back on track.”
However, the senior administration official noted that critics should ask why the Trump administration did not do more to stop the pipeline during its four years in power.
“The pipeline is 95% complete and the Trump administration did absolutely nothing about it when they had the chance,” the official said. ‘Now former officials who make it happen on their watch somehow maintain that it’s our fault. The same former officials spread conspiracy theories about secret discussions. The only discussion the Biden government had with the Germans about Nord Stream 2 was to make our opposition clear. ”
At the end of January, after speaking to Blinken, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that their position remained unchanged. But he said relations with the US were already improving. “I have to get used to talking to my American colleague on the phone and we agree on almost every point,” he told Reuters. “That has not been the case in the past.”
Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Said that although he was “supportive” of the sanction efforts, he was also “going to be very uncomfortable talking about it with the United States and Europe.”
“I think the ability of the US and Europe to work together on China policy is more important than our policy on Nord Stream 2,” said Murphy, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee. “And so we need to find a way to get back on the same page with Europe, and I hope the Biden government will have a more functional relationship with Europe than Trump had with Trump.”
Play in Russia’s hand
But other current and former officials believe that the risks of completing the pipeline, and the leverage it could give Russia over Europe and NATO, far outweigh the consequences of angering Berlin in the short term. And they argue that if Germany is willing to continue with this project, even though Russia continues its aggression in eastern Ukraine, there is little evidence that Germany will honor its commitment to maintain gas transit through Ukraine even after the pipeline is complete.
Nord Stream 2 will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine by transporting Russian gas to the EU through the Baltic Sea. Its construction would deprive Kiev of significant revenue – which, according to Ukrainian officials, is exactly the point.
“The core motivation for Russia is only to punish Ukraine,” Taras Kachka, the deputy minister of economy, trade and agriculture, told POLITICO last month. “Ukraine is strongly opposed to the construction of Nord Stream 2 and regards it as another Russian attempt to use energy as a tool for political pressure and extortion.”
Biden’s government earlier this week imposed new sanctions on Russian officials in response to the poisoning and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, and expects to impose even more fines in the coming weeks for Russia’s malicious activities. But Biden has so far resisted going further than his predecessor in imposing new sanctions on entities involved in the construction of Nord Stream, which according to current and former officials is one of the most effective ways to put Putin’s bad behavior to limit.
“Placing an interest in the heart of Nord Stream 2 can and will drain billions out of Putin’s coffers,” said Ryan Tully, who served as senior director of European and Russian affairs at the Trump NSC.
Senate John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) Led a group of 40 Republican senators Wednesday in a letter to Biden expressing deep concern over the government’s refusal to impose sanctions on entities involved in the North Stream II pipeline ‘.
Risch said he spoke to a State Department official about Nord Stream 2 on Thursday, but came away disappointed.
“I do not want to go any further,” he told POLITICO. A spokesman for Risch later said ‘there was no new information about [Nord Stream 2] brought on the call. ”