US President Donald Trump's administration is currently considering lifting sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline and possibly other Russian assets in Europe, according to White House sources, according to Politico. Administration officials, however, immediately objected to this claim.
According to the server, Steve Witkoff, the White House special envoy, is behind the proposal and is said to be pushing for the lifting of the restrictions as part of a broader reassessment of US energy policy in Europe.
However, this move is opposed by influential members of the government, including the foreign minister Marco Rubio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who also chairs the White House Energy Dominance Council. Both warn that easing sanctions could lead to a geopolitical weakening of the West's position vis-à-vis Moscow and a split in the transatlantic alliance.
It was Rubio who immediately denied the Politico report. "This is clearly untrue. Neither I nor Steve Witkoff have had any discussions about lifting sanctions against Russia as part of the Ukraine deal." Rubio wrote on the social network X. He said that "this is journalistic malpractice", adding that "if Politico has a shred of integrity, it will fully retract this fabrication".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the end of March that Moscow and Washington were discussing Nord Stream. Construction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline was due to be completed on 10 September 2021. It was originally scheduled for completion by the end of 2019, but work has been delayed due to US sanctions. It was during Trump's first term (2017-2021) that sanctions were imposed on companies involved in the construction of this pipeline.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which runs from Russia to Germany along the Baltic Sea bed, has long been a target of political controversy. While Moscow and Berlin describe it as a purely economic project, many countries, including Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states, see it as an instrument of Russian political pressure.
In September 2022, an unprecedented destruction was recorded on three lines of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has initiated proceedings for the crime of international terrorism. At present, the timeframe for restoring the pipelines to functionality cannot be determined.
gnews.cz
English 
Czech 
Spanish 
French 
Italian 
Russian 
Chinese 
German