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Pipe for the Baltic Sea pipeline
Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP
The longstanding dispute over Nord Stream 2 between the federal government and the US has ended with a deal.
As the top US diplomat Victoria Nuland reported on Wednesday, the agreement consists, among other things, of extending the transport of Russian gas through Ukraine by ten years parallel to the Baltic Sea pipeline.
The previous contracts expire in 2024.
In the future, Nord Stream 2 will transport gas from Russia directly to Germany. The construction of the Baltic Sea pipeline had raised fears that the project could cause economic damage to Ukraine and other traditional gas transit countries (read more here). In recent years, Chancellor Angela Merkel had vehemently opposed the US government's demand to stop the construction of the pipeline. Merkel had not let the new administration under President Joe Biden dissuade her from this course. Biden, on the other hand, is under enormous pressure from the US Congress. There is cross-party opposition to the project, which will generate billions in revenue for Russia and its ruler, Vladimir Putin.
SPIEGEL had previously reported on the deal, and several media outlets - including the Bloomberg news agency and the Wall Street Journal - had previously reported the agreement (read more here).
The agreement between Germany and the USA provides for sanctions against Russia in the event that Moscow "uses energy as a weapon," said Nuland at a hearing in the Senate.
This also applies in general to “aggressive behavior towards Ukraine”.
Berlin has undertaken to take measures against Moscow in such cases and also to work towards sanctions at EU level.
Merkel spoke to Putin on the phone
Merkel spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the pipeline on Wednesday.
A government spokeswoman announced this in the evening in Berlin.
On the one hand, the phone call was about the implementation of the Minsk agreements for a peaceful solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"Energy issues such as gas transit through Ukraine and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline were also discussed," she added.
as / AFP / dpa
