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Photo: ODD ANDERSEN / AFP
On its last day in office, the Trump administration intensified its conflict with Russia once again: "The US is today imposing sanctions on the Russian company KVT-RUS and declaring the ship 'Fortuna' to be blocked property," announced the US State Department.
This is the first time the US government has punished a company for participating in the construction of the German-Russian gas pipeline on the basis of the sanctions laws against Nord Stream 2.
The consequences of being classified as “blocked property” as long as the “Fortuna” is not in US territorial waters initially remained unclear.
The ship left Wismar last Thursday and was last in front of Rostock for days.
Actually, the Danish authorities had announced laying work for last Friday with the participation of "Fortuna" south of the Danish island of Bornholm.
The US State Department justified the sanctions by saying that the completion of Nord Stream 2 would open up the possibility for Russia "to use natural resources as a means of political pressure and malicious influence against Western Europe".
Further punitive measures are being considered in the near future.
The new sanctions had been announced beforehand.
Russia had been unimpressed by the threats.
The intention is to "continue the continuous work on the completion of this project," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax agency.
Gazprom fears "complete failure" according to the report
The Russian state agency Tass, on the other hand, quoted from a paper for investors, according to which the Russian gas monopoly and main investor Gazprom can no longer rule out a “complete failure” of the project because of political pressure.
The German energy company and pipeline investor Uniper is still behind the project.
The company announced that it is convinced that the pipeline will be completed.
Indeed, the sanctions are starting to take effect.
Among other things, it led to the Swiss company Allseas, which had laid pipes in the Baltic Sea with special ships, to stop work at the end of 2019.
The Norwegian certification company DNV GL announced its withdrawal from the project on Monday.
According to the “Bild” newspaper, the German company Bilfinger Nord Stream 2 has also turned its back.
At the end of 2017, Bilfinger was awarded the contract for control and safety systems to operate the pipeline between Russia and Germany.
The order volume was more than 15 million euros.
Bilfinger was also responsible for the construction of a heating center to preheat natural gas at the landing point in Lubmin.
The company did not comment on the report.
EU Parliament could call for a boycott of the pipeline because of Navalny
The US is up against the gas pipeline because it sees its partners in Europe as being too dependent on Russia.
They are supported by Eastern European countries such as Poland and the Baltic countries.
Critics accuse the US, on the other hand, of only wanting to sell their liquid gas better in Europe.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Berlin had brought the rejection of the pipeline in connection with the arrest of the Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny in Russia.
The European Parliament could also demand the end of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea as part of a planned declaration on the case of the Russian opposition politician.
According to Gazprom, 94 percent of the pipeline has already been completed.
It consists of two strings of pipeline, each around 1,230 kilometers long, and is expected to transport an additional 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to Germany every year.
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