NORD-STREAM 1 & 2 - (GERMANY & RUSSIA PIPELINE)
Yuriy Vitrenko, the CEO of Ukraine's gas distributor, Naftogaz, the EU should block Nord Stream 2 already to show Russia it was taking a "firm" stance on its military build up around Ukraine.
And it should also sanction
Nord Stream 1, a Russia-Germany gas pipeline up and running years ago, in the event of war.
"If there is further aggression on the Russian side, they should be talking about Nord Stream 1," he told US broadcaster CNBC on Thursday.
For its part, the US is currently considering two competing sanctions bills on how to shut down Nord Stream 2 if Russia attacked Ukraine again.
"From our perspective, it's very hard to see gas flowing through the pipeline or for it to become operational if Russia renews its aggression on Ukraine," US deputy state secretary Wendy Sherman said on Wednesday, following Nato-Russia talks in Brussels
https://euobserver.com/world/154082
"We should not drag [Nord Stream 2] into this conflict," she said.
............... the SPD's general secretary, Kevin Kuehnert, earlier this week.
"We have to leave the [pipeline dispute] behind us at some point," he said.
"Everything in me resists the idea of conflicts being conjured up just to bury a controversial project," he added, repeating a Russian talking point - that the US was seeking to sanction Nord Stream 2 so that it could export more liquid gas to Europe itself.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, also said on Thursday it was "absurd" to link Nord Stream 2 to Ukraine and that it was a "purely commercial" project.
But that is not the view in Ukraine, the US, or in eastern and nordic EU states, who say it will enable Russia to wage war in Ukraine without fear of harming its EU gas exports, most of which are currently transited through Ukraine's pipelines.
And it will enable Russia to cut off Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states in future, without hurting Germany, they say.
For Yuriy Vitrenko, the CEO of Ukraine's gas distributor, Naftogaz, the EU should block Nord Stream 2 already to show Russia it was taking a "firm" stance on its military build up around Ukraine.
And it should also sanction Nord Stream 1, a Russia-Germany gas pipeline up and running years ago, in the event of war