Pipeline carries controversy
Opposed by US and others, Russian project faces hurdles amid Ukraine tensions
FRANKFURT, Germany — The pipeline is built and being filled with natural gas. But Russia’s Nord Stream 2 faces a rocky road before any gas flows to Germany, with its new leaders adopting a more skeptical tone toward the project and tensions ratcheting up over Russia’s troop buildup at the Ukrainian border.
The pipeline opposed by Ukraine, Poland and the U.S. awaits approval from Germany and the European Union to bypass other countries and start bringing natural gas directly to Europe. The continent is struggling with a shortage that has sent prices surging, fueling inflation and raising fears about what would come next if gas supplies become critically low.
The U.S. has stressed targeting Nord Stream 2 as a way to counter any new Russian military move against Ukraine, and the project already faces legal and bureaucratic hurdles. As European and U.S. leaders confer on how to deal with Russia’s pressure on Ukraine, persistent political objections — particularly from EU members like Poland — add another challenge to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key projects.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the pipeline, and the country’s new leader, Olaf Scholz, did so as her finance minister.
But his new government took a more distanced tone after the Greens party joined the governing coalition. The Greens’ campaign position was that the pipeline doesn’t help fight global warming and undermines strategic EU interests.
New German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock have said the project doesn’t meet EU anti-monopoly regulations.
“Nord Stream 2 was a geopolitical mistake,” Habeck recently told the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “The question is open if it will be able to start operating,” adding that further “aggression” meant “nothing is off the table.”
Officials have not said what sanctions or other tools might be used on top of existing U.S. sanctions against ships connected to the project.
As chancellor, Scholz has been cautious in his comments, and it’s not clear if he’s willing to go as far as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has said it’s “very unlikely” that gas will flow if Russia “renewed its aggression” toward Ukraine.
The pipeline would double the volume of gas pumped by Russian-controlled gas giant Gazprom directly to Germany, adding to a similar pipeline under the Baltic Sea and circumventing existing links through Poland and Ukraine. Gazprom argues it would allow more reliable long-term supply and help save billions in transit fees paid to Poland and Ukraine. Gazprom says the pipeline is part of its role as a long-term supplier of affordable energy to Europe, which is heavily dependent on natural gas imports.
Pipeline critics say it increases Russia’s leverage over Europe, pits member states against each other and deprives Ukraine of key financial support. Europe also went into winter with scant gas reserves that have sent prices soaring to eight times what they were at the start of the year, with Putin using the crunch to underline his push for final approval of the project.