Biden will waive Trump-era sanctions on the Russian pipeline operator

The United States will waive sanctions on the company in charge of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, said a senior Biden administration official, a spot change that removes a key bone of containment between Washington and Berlin.

“I have determined that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive sanctions,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, referring to Nord Stream 2 AG, the company that oversees the project, as well as its CEO Matthias Warnig and the company’s corporate directors.

Heiko Maas, the German Foreign Minister, hailed a “constructive step” that showed that the US “took into account the really excellent relations we have established with the Biden administration”.

North Stream 2 will carry Russian gas directly across the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine. Warnig, a former East German Stasi intelligence officer, is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. State Department sent its 90-day periodic report to Congress listing the entities involved in the pipeline that will be sanctioned. The list included Russian ships laying the pipeline, but saved the company overseeing construction.

The resignation showed the US “taking a step towards us,” Maas said. “It’s an expression of the fact that Germany is an important partner for the United States, which it can count on in the future.”

North Stream 2 was “the only issue that [Germany and the US] have fundamental differences about ”, and the hope in both countries was that the project“ stop straining really excellent cooperation [between us] in no way, ”he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden has been consistently critical of Nord Stream 2, describing it as a “bad deal for Europe.” The United States says the pipeline will deprive Kiev of lucrative gas transit rates and make it much more vulnerable to Kremlin pressure. U.S. officials also argue that Europe’s dependence on Russian energy imports will also increase.

“Our opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is firm,” Blinken said, despite granting the waiver.

A senior state department official said Wednesday “stop this [project] it’s always been a long shot. ”

“Our actions today have shown that we continue to oppose the pipeline project, but we are also aware of the president’s commitment to rebuilding relations with our European allies and partners,” the official added.

Blinken spoke with Maas on Tuesday and a State Department spokesman said he had “underlined the U.S. commitment to working with allies and partners to counter Russian efforts to undermine our collective security.” “In this way, [he] stressed U.S. opposition to the North Stream 2 pipeline, “the spokesman said.

But the decision to waive sanctions shows that Washington is unwilling to risk a damaging dispute over the project with one of its closest allies. Germany supports the pipeline, which he says is a crucial pillar of its energy security, and has condemned U.S. extraterritorial sanctions against the project, calling it unjustified interference in its internal affairs.

News of the exemption was received with dismay at Capitol Hill, where opposition to Nord Stream 2 is one of the few issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree.

Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement opposing the Biden administration’s decision to waive sanctions and did not see how the decision would advance U.S. efforts to counter the Russian aggression in Europe.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said the resignation would show the U.S. government never planned to stop the project. “If the Putin regime is allowed to finish this pipeline, it will be because the Biden administration chose to let it pass,” he said.

“Two months ago, President Biden called Putin an ‘assassin,’ but today he plans to give Putin, his regime and his comrades a massive strategic lever in Europe,” said Ben Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska.

The waiver will only be for the next 90 days. But Germany is confident that this will give the two countries time to overcome their remaining differences from Nord Stream 2.

Maas said the United States and Germany should now use the time left until the next 90-day report to discuss “the particularly problematic aspects of the project,” especially how “it has left Ukraine feeling threatened.”

“We have three months now. . . talk to Washington officials about how we proceed and how our governments can reconcile the different positions that exist in Washington and Berlin on this issue, ”he said.