As tensions escalate on the Russia-Ukraine border, a massive underwater pipeline has become a new bargaining chip to calm the Cold War-style confrontation. In a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, President Joe Biden placed Russian President Vladimir Putin on notice.
“If Russia invades, that means troops or tanks crossing the border of Ukraine again; there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it,” Biden said.
Nord Stream 2 is the companion natural gas pipeline to Nord Stream. Both stretch more than 700 miles underneath the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. The United States, Ukraine and other European countries have long opposed both projects because they fear the energy pipelines would increase Russia’s influence over Germany.
According to Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy company, Nord Stream went online in 2011. Nord Stream 2, completed in 2021, is still awaiting approval to come online from German regulators.
Scholz assured Americans that Germany and the U.S. are committed to getting Russia to the negotiating table and ending this conflict.
“We are acting together,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said. “We are absolutely united, and we will not be taking any steps. We will do the same steps, and they will be very, very hard to Russia, and they should understand.”
