Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel stands by Russia pipeline that US opposes

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that she isn't abandoning a German-Russian gas pipeline project that faces US sanctions, although it's likely to be an irritant in generally improved relations with the new administration.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would bring Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, faces bipartisan opposition in the United States.

Washington has said that the project would make Europe more dependent on Russian gas and hurt European energy security.

The Kremlin has responded by accusing the US government of trying to promote sales of its own liquefied natural gas.

Nord Stream 2 is owned by Russian state company Gazprom, with investment from several European companies.

The pipeline construction was suspended in December 2019 when a Swiss firm pulled its vessels out of the project amid threats of US sanctions, forcing Gazprom to try to complete it with its own resources.

Earlier this week, before President Joe Biden took office, Germany's Economy Ministry said it had been informed of U.S. sanctions against the Russian pipe-laying ship Fortuna and its owner.

Merkel has consistently stood by the project.

She acknowledged Thursday that she said last summer the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was treated in Germany after being exposed to a nerve agent, “could play a role.”

Navalny was arrested immediately after returning to Russia on Sunday.

But “I am saying today that my basic attitude has not yet changed in such a way that I would say that the project shouldn't happen,” Merkel added.

“We will of course speak with the new American administration,” she said.