Ahead of a possible meeting between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, Washington wisely decided not to escalate the situation and postponed new sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
The US has always been the main opponent of the project and more than once has tried to prevent the construction. The US bombarded the project with sanctions, put pressure on Germany, and made many companies stop the construction by threatening to introduce tough sanctions against them. Therefore, a new soft stance of the US came as a surprise. President Joe Biden has decided not to sanction Nord Stream 2 AG that is in charge of building Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Nord Stream 2 AG is a registered Swiss firm whose parent company is the Russian gas giant, Gazprom. It is ruled by CEO Matthias Warnig, a former East German intelligence officer.
"I have been opposed to Nord Stream 2 from the beginning," Biden said. "But it was almost completed by the time I took office," Biden said. "And to go ahead and impose sanctions now would I think be counterproductive in terms of our European relations and I hope we can work on how they handle it from this point on."
Yet, Washington is preparing to include Nord Stream 2 AG in the list of legal entities engaged in sanctionable activities. The company has not subjected to strict measures yet, including a ban on any operations and the blocking of all assets. So, the decision to postpone the sanctions can be canceled at any time. In general, the US may use the possibility of imposing new sanctions as leverage in the lead-up to the impending Biden-Putin summit.
Despite the fact that the Biden administration has waived sanctions, Republicans and Democrats consider Nord Stream 2 "a Russian malign influence project that threatens to deepen Europe's energy dependence on Moscow, render Ukraine more vulnerable to Russian aggression and provide billions of dollars to Putin's coffers." Therefore, companies involved in its construction may be subject to sanctions.
