US senators want to reverse Biden’s NS 2 waivers
Senate leaders from the US Republican Party issued a measure May 20 that calls for a reversal of president Joe Biden’s recent sanctions waivers regarding Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.
The US State Department said May 19 it was waiving sanctions on Swiss-based pipeline company Nord Stream AG, its CEO Matthias Warnig and other officers. Entities involved in the construction of the pipeline, which is nearly complete, remain under sanctions pressure.
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Nord Stream 2 is the second leg of a dual natural gas pipeline system that runs through the Baltic Sea to the German coast. Representatives from German gas lobby group Zukunft Gas told NGW in January that it doubted Biden would want to jeopardise the relationship with Berlin with tighter sanctions on the project.
Kevin Cramer, a Republican representing North Dakota and a member of the Senate armed services committee, sponsored legislation that, if passed, would revert to the tight sanctions regime embraced by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.
“At the risk of weakening America’s global standing, the Biden administration is acquiescing to a misguided German strategy which will give (Russian president Vladimir) Putin a grip on our allies in Europe,” Cramer said.
The same day that Cramer issued the measure, the Kremlin said it welcomed the sanctions decision from the Biden administration.
“The president should not take it as a good sign that he’s receiving praise from a Kremlin spokesman and a Russian deputy foreign minister for a foreign policy decision,” Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, added.
Addressing reporters May 20, however, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that even though the pipeline is nearly completed, sanctions continued to be viable tool.
"We have imposed sanctions on four Russian entities, four Russian vessels that engaged in sanctionable activities. We’ve also imposed sanctions on nine vessels belonging to the Russian government,” she said.