© Sputnik / Dmitrij Leltschuk
"At a morning operational meeting [...], the chairman of Gazprom's Management Board, Alexey Miller, said that this morning at 08.45 Moscow time [05:45 GMT] construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been fully completed," Gazprom announced on its Telegram channel.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova emphasised that stopping Nord Stream 2 is "impossible", warning against placing obstacles in front of the project. According to her, the terms of how Nord Stream 2 begins to conduct business will depend on the German regulator commercial supplies will depend on a German regulator's position.
The statement comes after Nord Stream 2 AG, the pipeline's operator, said the last pipe of the second string of Nord Stream 2 was welded on Monday. "On 6 September 2021, specialists on the laybarge Fortuna welded the last pipe of the two strings of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline," the operator said in a statement, adding that the goal is to put the "pipeline into operation before the end of this year".
© REUTERS / Anton VaganovFILE PHOTO: Workers are seen at the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, near the town of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia, June 5, 2019
Comment: And the EU has serious energy needs that it has proven time and again it cannot meet with its farcical 'green energy' projects: UK fires up coal power plant as gas prices soar to record levels
As the next step, the section of the pipe coming from the German shore will be connected to the section coming from the Danish waters in a so-called above water tie-in. Afterwards, the required pre-commissioning activities are carried out with the goal to put the pipeline into operation before the end of this year", Nord Stream 2 AG added.
The statement comes after the US Treasury Department said last month that Washington had imposed sanctions on two Russian companies and two vessels over their involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, stressed in a statement that "the unilateral actions of the Americans against the project violate international law and contradict the principle of free-market relations".
This was preceded by Germany and the US сlinching a deal that implied the completion of the Nord Stream 2 project without the threat of American sanctions. Among the conditions stipulated in the agreement, Germany vowed to prevent Russia from "using energy as a weapon" and to use all possible leverage to prolong Russian gas transit through Ukraine.
Comment: Russia is becoming rather impatient with Ukraine so it's likely it has its own leverage in mind.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for her part, asserted that the Berlin-Washington deal on Nord Stream 2 does not resolve all the differences between the two countries with regard to the project, but that it marks a step forward.
US Sanctions Against Nord Stream 2 The US and its allies in eastern Europe, especially Poland and Ukraine, have actively opposed construction of Nord Stream 2. Washington previously slapped two rounds of sanctions on the project, arguing that once Nord Stream 2 is operational, Europe will become even more dependent on Russia's energy resources, something that will allegedly help Moscow gain political leverage.
Comment: Interestingly, Poland is beginning to suffer the 'benefits' of being allied with the Western powers and so one wonders whether it will continue to be so belligerent towards Russia, a country that it seems to share more in common with: Hungary blasts 'arrogant' Brussels threats to penalize Poland for judicial reform, accuses EU of empire-building
The Biden administration, however, then waived sanctions against Nord Stream 2, saying Washington did not wish to obstruct the pipeline's construction because it realised sanctions would not work and because it wanted to avoid alienating Berlin.Moscow has repeatedly emphasised that the project is purely economic, and the White House's opposition is an example of unfair competition.
Nord Stream 2 provides for the construction of a 745-mile offshore twin pipeline aimed to supply up to 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas per year from Russia directly to Germany.
Comment: Despite nearing the point that the gas is ready to be pumped, it's unlikely that the US will give up on its attempts to sabotage Nord Stream 2 and all that it entails: