WASHINGTON – The United States has issued fresh sanctions on several Russia-based entities involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the State Department announced on Wednesday.
The sanctions target several new owners of vessels already under sanctions, as well as Russia-based marine services and water transport entities, the state-owned maritime rescue service, and over a dozen vessels. Also targeted was Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the project, and a Russia-based insurer that provided insurance to companies involved in the project.
The United States has maintained its opposition to Nord Stream 2 as a Russian geopolitical project and efforts to revive it. The pipeline, built under the Baltic Sea by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom to pump gas from the Arctic to Germany, was damaged on September 26, 2022, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Washington opposed Nord Stream 2 even before Russia’s invasion, citing concerns that it would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine and potentially deprive it of billions of dollars in transit fees. Some Western officials have suggested that Moscow blew up its own pipelines, an interpretation dismissed as “idiotic” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia has blamed the United States, Britain, and Ukraine for the blasts, which largely cut Russian gas off from the lucrative European market. Those countries have denied involvement.
