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  • 2019-05-21 (xsd:date)
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  • Lekukh stated.Lekukh’s statement, however, is false. The sanctions will affect directly only two companies involved in laying the Nord Stream 2 deep-sea pipeline — Allseas Group S.A. (Switzerland) and Saipem S.p.A. (Italy).In fact, under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2018 (CAATSA), the U.S. Department of Treasury could have imposed wide-ranging sanctions against all European companies working with Russia's Gazprom to build Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream, the natural gas pipeline that runs from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea. The law allows the U.S. president, in coordination with U.S. allies, to authorize sanctions on companies investing in Russian export pipelines or selling, leasing, or providing goods, services, technology and information for the construction of such pipelines.The main reason sanctions have not been imposed so far under CAATSA is the U.S. administration’s effort to convince Germany that Nord Stream 2 would harm European energy security. Washington has been reluctant to alienate Berlin and the German business community, which supports the pipeline. However, diplomacy has failed, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted to the Congress in April that his department had done all it can to dissuade the Germans from building the pipeline, but without success.​The new Senate bill, if it becomes a law, would be easier and faster to implement compared to the more complex CAATSA: it is a simple and clear piece of legislation outlining targeted sanctions against a few critical contractors. It would affect the handful of companies in the world that have the know-how to operate pipeline-laying vessels.The bill envisions concrete and decisive steps to prevent or halt the construction of Russian energy export pipelines laid at depths of 100 feet or more below sea level. If adopted soon, it could make the completion of Nord Stream 2 impossible, as the sanctions would threaten the few companies that have the technology for deep-water pipe laying. Russia has not developed such technology yet and, for now, must resort to hiring Western contractors for such projects.The sanctions would affect owners, corporate officers and principal shareholders of companies that possess or provide such vessels. The measures against these persons include visa denial and exclusion from the United States as well as blocking and prohibiting transactions in all their property and interests in property.The bill targets not only the pipe-laying vessels working on projects such as Nord Stream 2 under the Baltic Sea and TurkStream under the Black Sea, but also foreign persons that have sold (en)
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  • On May 14, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (Republican, Texas) and Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, New Hampshire) introduced a bill that would impose sanctions on vessels building Russian energy export deep-sea pipelines. The bill was cosponsored by two other Republican senators, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and John Barasso of Wyoming. ​The reaction to the announcement in the Russian media was immediate. The newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta said that the bill provides for the toughest, Iranian-style sanctions against Nord Stream 2, the natural gas pipeline that runs from Russia to northern Germany under the Baltic Sea. Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on May 21 that U.S. sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany would be an act of unfair competition that would be unacceptable for Moscow and for many European Union countries. RIA Novosti opinion writer Dmitry Lekukh said the new sanctions bill amounts to a trade war with Europe.Actually (en)
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