This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Russia has welcomed media reports that the United States is set to wave sanctions on the company in charge of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, with the Kremlin saying that such a move would be a positive signal “if true.”
Citing unnamed sources, U.S. news website Axios and the Reuters agency reported on May 19 that Washington was set to wave sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, the company overseeing construction of the pipeline.
Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom is Nord Stream 2 AG’s majority shareholder.
Axios also reported that sanctions would be waived on Matthias Warnig, an ally of President Vladimir Putin and the company’s CEO.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 19 in Moscow that in the absence of official confirmation, the reports “can hardly be perceived” as a signal. “However, the very fact that such publications appeared is already quite positive,” he added.
The report, which came out on the eve on the first meeting between Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, highlights the difficulties Biden faces in matching actions to rhetoric on a tougher approach to Russia.
Blinken and Lavrov are scheduled hold talks in Iceland on May 19 amid deteriorating relations between the global rivals.
Besides Nord Stream2, Washington and Moscow have multiple issues dividing them — including Russia’s military buildup in and around Ukraine, maneuvering for position in the Arctic, Russia’s treatment of opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, and U.S. accusations of Russian cyberwarfare and interference in Western electoral processes.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov earlier said that a step such as the reported waiving of sanctions would help normalize ties between Moscow and Washington, according to the Interfax news agency. But he told a news briefing in Moscow on May 19 that “no bilateral consultations on the matter are under way with the Americans.”
The source quoted by Reuters said that the U.S. State Department would deliver a report on the Nord Stream 2 sanctions as early as May 19.
The report, required by Congress, concludes that Nord Stream 2 AG and Warnig engaged in sanctionable activity but that it was in U.S. national interests to waive the sanctions, the source said.
The United States opposes the almost complete pipeline, which would bring gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Nord Stream 2 threatens to circumvent Ukraine and deprive the country of billions of dollars in gas transit fees.
Russia and Germany argue that the $11 billion venture is mainly a commercial project.
Supporters of the pipeline under the Baltic Sea say the U.S. opposition to Nord Stream is grounded in its interest in selling more of its own liquefied gas to Europe.
Washington has already imposed sanctions on the Russian company KVT-RUS, which operates the pipe-laying vessel Fortuna. That measure was announced by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump shortly before the end of his term in January.
The Axios report runs counter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s position that the project is “a bad idea, bad for Europe, bad for the United States” and his warning that further sanctions against Nord Stream 2 were a real possibility.
Axios said that such a decision would indicate that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration does not want to endanger Washington’s relationship with Germany over the project.
