Germany Halts Nordstream 2 Amid Russian Invasion

According to reports, Russia has invaded part of Ukraine.

In response to this, Germany has announced that it is halting completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline set to deliver natural gas to Germany and other parts of Europe.

Europe has long been at the mercy of Russia when it comes to natural gas, being that the continent has been heavily dependent on Russian natural gas for quite some time now.

Critics claim that Europe should have better diversified its energy portfolio away from adversarial nations like Russia—had they done this earlier the current situation with Nordstream 2 likely would not have manifested.

This discussion cannot be had of course without mentioning that the U.S. sought to sell ‘freedom gas’ to Europe, and there were a number of very interested countries…

Could it be that this current geopolitical conflict is being used as cover to do natural resource deals?

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time as was evidenced by the Iraq war and ongoing proxy wars in the Middle East.

Here are the latest developments:

Wow. Scholz has just announced that NordStream 2 will not be certified. I didn't think he'd do it – but absolutely the right step and a sign that Putin's aggression is shifting even Germany's stance on Russia.

— Jeremy Cliffe (@JeremyCliffe) February 22, 2022

https://twitter.com/Beany_1/status/1496117159487066117

The Wall Street Journal confirmed the troop movements and sanctions:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged calm as Russian troops poured into the eastern Donbas region and Western nations announced measures to punish Moscow for recognizing two Russian-controlled statelets there as independent.

Germany said it halted moves to open the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine in exporting natural gas to Europe. The European Union proposed a ban on purchases of Russian bonds, sanctions on all members of the Russian parliament who voted in favor of supporting recognition of the two breakaway regions, and an asset freeze for three Russian banks with links to the two statelets.

 

Germany fears Russian gas retaliation if war breaks out. Maybe their leaders should have thought of that a decade ago and diversified when Russia started cutting off gas the first time. Instead the Germans built Nordstream 2 to become even more dependent. https://t.co/Ip7xWGZO4t

— Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) February 20, 2022

The package of sanctions and measures that seem likely to be adopted by the EU by this evening – coupled with the Nordstream 2 suspension by Germany – seems to be a bigger hit on Russia than that proposed by the UK

— Richard Colebourn (@rcolebourn) February 22, 2022

Daily Mail reports that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is vowing sanctions on Russia as well:

‘Today, the UK is sanctioning the following five Russian banks: Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank,’ the premier told the House.

‘And we are sanctioning three very high net worth individuals: Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Igor Rotenberg.’

Suggesting that members of the Russian Duma could be among those to face action next, he added: ‘Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, the individuals concerned will be banned from travelling here and we will prohibit all UK individuals and entities from having any dealings with them.’