“Time is running out here to do something before the pipeline is completed,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (DN.H.), a member of the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, on Thursday. “And I think we need to act very quickly.”
The pressure campaign increased on Friday when Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suspended the final confirmation of President Joe Biden’s CIA director candidate William Burns, postponing a quick vote to pressure the Biden government to impose additional sanctions. .
“I will release my retention when Administrator Biden fulfills his legal obligation to report and sanction the ships and companies that build the Putin pipeline,” Cruz wrote on Twitter Friday.
The dynamics on the Hill put the White House in a diplomatic situation. The general objective of the new government is to show a united front with Germany and the rest of Europe against Russian aggression. But Germany is eager to see the pipeline complete because it would offer a cheaper alternative to natural gas, which means that the United States can piss off an important ally if it continues with the sanctions demanded by Congress.
“We look forward to restoring our relationship with Germany after four years of abuse from the previous government,” said a senior government official. “But Congress is not moving. We are between a rock and a hard place. “
“Bad business for Europe”
Biden himself publicly called the pipeline “bad business for Europe,” and a package of sanctions on the project continues to advance the interagency process, even if it is not as fast as some lawmakers want. Stopping Nord Stream 2 has been a bipartisan priority, with members of Congress arguing that completing the pipeline would strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin at the expense of Ukraine and other US allies.
In its final days, the Trump administration planned to go so far as to sanction German entities for their role in the project, former officials said. These entities included Nord Stream’s German CEO, Matthias Warnig, and the German ship Krebs Geo. But they never did that, instead they sanctioned only the Russian tube-laying ship Fortuna and its owner KVT-RUS.
The State Department kept these designations in a report to Congress last month, but went no further – angering Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who say the government is mandated by law to identify and sanction any and all entities involved in the construction of the pipeline, which now includes at least seven Russian ships.
Shaheen and Cruz are co-authors of a clause in the annual defense bill that imposes sanctions on those involved in the construction of the pipeline. Shaheen also joined Sen. Idaho Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, lobbying Biden last month to fully implement this provision.
The State Department informed Senate Foreign Affairs Committee officials about the government’s position on Nord Stream 2 last week and will do so again next week, according to a Senate aide. But officials said they learned nothing new during the briefing, and the senators themselves said they remained largely out of the loop.
You will not like the Germans when they are angry
Several current and former officials said the heart of the matter was how to stop the pipeline without souring relations with Germany. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is trying to rebuild Washington’s relationship with Berlin after four years of neglect and contempt for former President Donald Trump’s government. The relationship has deteriorated so much with Trump that German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the famous phrase in 2018 that Europe could no longer depend on the U.S. and “must take its destiny into its own hands”.
The director of the National Security Council for Europe, Amanda Sloat, also warned internally against too quick action on additional Nord Stream sanctions as the government works to repair the US relationship with Germany, officials said.
A former national security officer close to the White House captured the general sentiment: “Many people within the government think that the Germans have been terribly mistreated and want to resume this relationship.”
The senior government official noted, however, that critics should be wondering why the Trump administration did not do more to shut down the pipeline during its four years in power.
“The pipeline is 95% complete and the Trump administration totally failed to do anything about it when it had the chance,” said the official. “Now, former employees who let this happen under their supervision are somehow insisting that it is our fault. These same former employees are spreading conspiracy theories about secret discussions. The only discussion that the Biden administration had with the Germans at Nord Stream 2 is to make our opposition clear. “
In late January, after speaking with Blinken, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his position remained unchanged. But he said the relationship with the United States already appears to be improving. “I have to get used to the fact that I talk to my American colleague on the phone and we agree on almost every point,” he told Reuters. “It didn’t happen in the past.”
Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Said that while he “supported” the sanctions efforts, he is also “very uncomfortable with the United States and Europe taking separate paths in this”.
“I think the ability of the United States and Europe to cooperate in China’s policy is more important than our policy on Nord Stream 2,” said Murphy, a key member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “And then we have to find a way to get back on the same page with Europe, and my hope is that the Biden government will be able to have a more functional relationship on energy issues with Europe than Trump did.”
Playing in the hand of Russia
But other current and former officials say the risks of allowing the pipeline to be completed and the influence it could give Russia on Europe and NATO far outweigh the short-term consequences of angering Berlin. And they argue that if Germany is willing to go ahead with this project even while Russia continues its show of aggression in eastern Ukraine, there is little evidence that Germany will honor its commitment to maintain some gas transit through Ukraine even after the completion of the gas pipeline.
Nord Stream 2 would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine in transporting Russian gas to the EU across the Baltic Sea. The construction would deprive Kiev of crucial revenue – what Ukrainian officials say is exactly the point.
“Russia’s main motivation is to punish Ukraine,” Ukrainian Deputy Minister for Economy, Trade and Agriculture, Taras Kachka, told POLITICO last month. “Ukraine is firmly opposed to the construction of Nord Stream 2 and sees it as yet another Russian attempt to use energy as a tool of political pressure and blackmail.”
The Biden government imposed new sanctions on Russian authorities earlier this week in response to the poisoning and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, and hopes to implement further penalties for Russia’s evil activities around the world in the coming weeks. But Biden has so far resisted going beyond his predecessor by imposing new sanctions on entities involved in the construction of Nord Stream, which current and former employees argue would be one of the most effective ways to curb Putin’s misbehavior.
“Putting a stake in the heart of Nord Stream 2 could, and would, drain billions from Putin’s coffers,” said Ryan Tully, who served as senior director for European and Russian Affairs at Trump NSC.
Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) Led a group of 40 Republican senators in a letter to Biden on Wednesday expressing “deep concern about the government’s refusal to impose sanctions on entities involved in the Nord Stream II pipeline”.
Risch said he spoke to a State Department official on Thursday about Nord Stream 2, but was disappointed.
“I don’t want to go any further than that,” he told POLITICO. A spokesman for Risch later said “there was no new information about [Nord Stream 2] brought in the call. “