US President Joe Biden decided to waive sanctions against the German company involved in the Nord Stream 2 project and its CEO, Matthias Warnig. This move certainly aroused a lot of questions among journalists and market participants. The gas pipeline is almost complete despite economic sanctions, the President expressed the common stance of the White House.
Asking the question why he allows Germany and Russia to proceed with building works, Biden said, "Because it’s almost completely finished, number one … and it’s not like I can allow Germany to do something or not ... To go ahead and impose sanctions now would, I think, be counter-productive in terms of our European relations."
The President confirmed that he had been opposed to this geopolitical project since its launch. However, the pipeline had been "almost completely finished" by the time of Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. All in all, Joe Biden prefers to close his eyes to the gas pipeline ahead of the first visit to Europe and the first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Nord Stream 2 is the joint project of Russia’s Gazprom and Western partners who are building two gas pipelines with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year. The pipelines will be exporting natural gas from Russia’s coast to Germany via the Baltic Sea bottom. The project is now about 95% complete.
