A meeting between the State Department and Congressional staff on Vladimir Putin’s Russia-Germany gas pipeline has been tense this week, with Biden officials avoiding questions about why they did not act faster and more aggressively with sanctions for stop your conclusion.
- The Biden officers it also denied negotiating with the Germans about a possible parallel agreement to allow the pipeline to be completed.
Why it matters: As we reported earlier this week, some allies are concerned that Biden is shaken on Putin’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and the fight is a significant test of whether the new president’s harsh rhetoric against Russia will be accompanied by action.
- Russian opponents, including senior officials from the Ukrainian and Polish governments, fear that Biden does not want to harass Angela Merkel and will not inflict serious costs on the Germans.
- And members of Congress – both Republicans and Democrats – were disappointed by a report that the Biden State Department recently sent to Congress, which was targeting only one Russian sanctions vessel. The Trump administration had already sanctioned that ship, Fortuna.
Behind the scenes: The first link between senior State Department officials and Republican and Democratic national security officials from the House and Senate took place on Tuesday.
- Tuesday’s call was confidential and took place in a secure room. A source in the call, and two other sources informed of this conversation, said the question focused on why the Biden government had not directed more ships to sanctions – given, the aides argued, that maritime tracking clearly shows a series of additional ships are working on the pipeline.
- The call went on for about half an hour, until the line suddenly dropped on the side of the State Department. Although some Republicans on the call initially thought they were disconnected, the State Department said it was a technical problem.
So, on Thursday at 2pm, State Department officials regrouped for a second conference call, this time non-confidential, with senior officials from the Chamber and Senate offices.
- This call was more contentious, according to three sources who participated. The growing hostility came from Republican officials who were not satisfied with the responses. Biden’s employees seemed to be politely trying to avoid conflict.
At one point during the call, a Republican Senate official asked Biden officials why they had not sanctioned Nord Stream 2 AG – the company responsible for building the pipeline.
- State Department officials responded that they would not discuss specific entities and that they were still investigating the facts and compiling the evidence.
“We are talking about the company that owns Nord Stream 2,” the Republican official said bluntly, according to the three sources for the call. “I’m on their page now and they identify themselves as the company responsible for planning, building and operating the pipeline.”
- “You determined that sanctionable activity was taking place related to the pipeline,” continued the officer. “What kind of information do you need to obtain to confirm for yourself that the company that runs the operation you just sanctioned is involved in sanctionable activities?”
State Department officials contested that the general tone of the call was hostile, and claimed that they later heard from Congress officials who described the briefing as helpful.
- They argued that it may take a long time to determine which entities are subject to sanctions and reiterated that the Biden government plans to use all available tools to halt the completion of the pipeline.
During the call, Molly Montgomery, the deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs denied that the US is negotiating with Germany a possible parallel agreement to allow the pipeline to continue.
- Reuters reported on Friday, citing a German government spokeswoman, that “there is an exchange between the U.S. government and Germany over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring Russian gas to Europe.” The report did not provide further details.
- State Department officials argued that the word “exchange” should not be interpreted as a negotiation and that the Biden government, in the course of normal diplomatic talks, had registered its concerns about the pipeline with the Germans.
A senior Senate adviser on the call he also defended the Biden government against accusations of acting slowly and smoothly, saying that there was bipartisan opposition to the pipeline, but the government “needs to make sure that any sanctions meet a standard of evidence that can be tried”.
- “Time is short and they are in the crosshairs,” said the aide, “but I think they are trying to avoid the approach of the clown car of the last administration, which did things like sanctioning the Russian company Rusal, but had to go back later they almost collapsed the world aluminum market. “
- “Measuring twice to cut once is always a sensible policy,” added the aide, “especially when there is a sense of urgency to do it right.”
- Yes but: The Trump administration only removed Rusal from its sanctions list after an oligarch and Putin’s friend, Oleg Deripaska, made a commitment to divest his majority stake in the company.
GOP Congress officials he asked Biden officials to commit to updating the report they had already submitted to Congress with new entities that should be sanctioned, but State Department officials have not pledged to do so.
- One of Biden’s employees told lawmakers that if they had more information about the entities involved in the pipeline, they should say what it is. Earlier this month, bipartisan members of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, naming these suspect ships.
- In the recently passed defense bill, Congress mandated that the government sanction a wide range of activities involved in the pipeline.
The big picture: Construction of the pipeline was halted during the Trump administration after Congress imposed sanctions on a 2019 bill and senior Trump officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, made aggressive threats.
- But the Russians resumed major construction on Nord Stream 2 after Biden took office.
The end result: The pipeline is over 90% completed and could be completed by summer, without major intervention to interrupt it.