U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement after the Biden administration transmitted to Congress a mandatory, overdue report on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
The undersea pipeline, Nord Stream 2, is more than 90% completed, with about 100 miles remaining, according to reports. Construction resumed on Feb. 6th, more than a year after it came to a halt from opposition with the Trump administration and Congress authorizing sanctions on companies and individuals involved in the project.
The Biden administration has not imposed sanctions required by law.
“Over the past few years, Democrats have been ceaseless in calling for ever-stronger measures sanctioning and cutting off Russia. It is startling to see the Biden administration begin by handing Putin a victory he has been building towards for over a decade,” said Cruz.
“There is also no coherent national security justification. Without immediate and strong action, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will be completed. Our allies across Europe will be subject to Putin’s blackmail and aggression, NATO’s ability to act will be severely constrained, and billions will flow into the Kremlin’s coffers,” Cruz wrote in a statement to the Biden administration.
Cruz says this reversed years of bipartisan work and commitment aimed at stopping the pipeline and set up Russian President Putin to complete the pipeline at the expense of American national security and the energy security of our European allies.
In January 2019, the US ambassador in Germany, Richard Grenell, sent letters to companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2 urging them to stop working on the project and threatening the possibility of sanctions.
In December 2019, Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson have also urged Allseas owner Edward Heerema to suspend the works on the pipeline, warning him that otherwise the United States would impose sanctions.
On December 21, 2019, Allseas announced that the company had suspended its Nord Stream 2 pipelay activities, anticipating the enactment of the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 containing sanctions. These sanctions were soon imposed. Nord Stream 2 said it would finish construction “as soon as possible”.
In December 2020, Sen. Cruz participated in a panel discussion with the Atlantic Council about Russia’s construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the bipartisan support for stopping Putin’s pipeline.
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