US plans to ‘bury’ Nord Stream-2 to destroy Russia’s role on EU gas market

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – The United States has the most pragmatic position on the Nord Stream-2 project, as Washington’s goal is to bury the project through sanctions and to promote its own suppliers, replacing Russia on the European gas market, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday.

“The most pragmatic is the position of the United States, which wants to bury this project with all sorts of legal decisions, instruments, sanctions, having an ambiguous impact on the European Union,”

Medvedev said following talks with his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila.

The Nord Stream-2 project, a joint venture of Russia’s Gazprom with France’s Engie, Austria’s OMV AG, Royal Dutch Shell and Germany’s Uniper, envisages the construction of a pipeline with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters (1.9 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas. The pipeline is planned to be laid along the existing Nord Stream pipeline route from Russia through the Baltic Sea and on to a hub in Germany.

Medvedev stressed that Moscow considers “unacceptable” a demand by the European Commission that an additional agreement on the Nord Stream-2, involving special mandate approved by the EU Council, must be signed in order to move ahead with the project.