The United States imposed additional sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. New measures  affect companies that will serve the ships involved in the completion of the pipe construction, or finance their reconstruction.

The US has expanded sanctions against the Russian gas pipeline "Nord Stream 2", as it follows from the message on the website of the US Department of State. It points out that the sanctions will  apply  to companies that provide services, capacity or funding to “improve or install equipment” for ships that will continue to build a pipeline under the Baltic Sea.

“We continue to urge Russia to stop using its energy resources for coercive purposes. Russia is using its pipelines to create national and regional dependence on its supplies, using these dependencies to expand its political, economic and military influence, weakening European security, as well as US national security and foreign interests,” the State Department said in a statement. They add that Russian pipelines reduce the energy diversification of Europe, and therefore weaken European energy security.



The United States imposed sanctions against Nord Stream 2 at the end of 2019. After that, Gazprom's European contractors, who were laying the pipeline, stopped work and recalled the vessels, for example, the Swiss company AllSeas. The Russian authorities   stated that Russia was capable of completing the construction of the gas pipeline on its own. After that, several more draft sanctions against Nord Stream 2 appeared in the United States, which were proposed by Congressmen: the first was proposed by senators, and the second, softer, was prepared by members of the House of Representatives.

Nord Stream 2 is to run from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The project is mostly ready, only a small section remains to be completed. A new debate over the gas pipeline has erupted in Europe after the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He was hospitalized in Omsk and then evacuated to Berlin. The German government stated that he was poisoned with poison from the Novichok group. German Chancellor Angela Merkel initially opposed linking the poisoning to the gas pipeline, but after the announcement about Novichok, she said that Berlin expects Moscow to answer about what happened to Navalny. Merkel added that the decision on the gas pipeline will be pan-European.

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US was in the process of forming a coalition to counter the gas pipeline. Pompeo did not specify any details of this  cooperation.