Germans Aim to Kneecap U.S. Sanctions on Russia
Late on Friday, President Donald Trump is set to sign legislation sanctioning a gas pipeline project that would run from Russia to Germany. The Ukrainian government has worked to stop the project. The German government, meanwhile, opposes the sanctions. In a final series of meetings aiming to stave them off, Berlin officials made statements that frustrated both Ukrainian and U.S. officials, according to five sources with knowledge of the talks.
The Germans have intimated that the U.S. will have a harder time holding together Western sanctions on Russia if it blocks the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipeline, according to three of those sources, and they suggest the American action could endanger crucial gas transit talks among Germany, Ukraine, and Russia.
Berlin also says success of those talks is vital to American national security, and that this justifies shielding the project from the sanctions designed to stop it.