{"id":21414,"date":"2021-04-08T16:10:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T16:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/04\/08\/punishing-germany-for-nord-stream-2-does-nothing-to-stop-putin\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:56:33","slug":"punishing-germany-for-nord-stream-2-does-nothing-to-stop-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2021\/04\/08\/punishing-germany-for-nord-stream-2-does-nothing-to-stop-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"Punishing Germany for Nord Stream 2 does nothing to stop Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking after his meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Brussels last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/usa-blinken-nato-nordstream\/update-1-uss-blinken-warned-germanys-maas-about-nord-stream-2-sanctions-idUSL1N2LM1CL\" target=_blank>repeated<\/a> his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/nord-stream-2-and-potential-sanctionable-activity\/\" target=_blank>earlier warning<\/a> that the Biden administration was poised to impose sanctions on companies involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The controversial pipeline that the German government supports \u2014 and many in Washington, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2019\/11\/23\/congress-to-take-up-nord-stream-2-sanctions-on-defense-bill\/\" target=_blank>especially in Congress<\/a>, vehemently oppose \u2014 has emerged as a major obstacle to better relations between the United States and its key European ally Germany. The Biden administration may want to sanction only Russian companies, but congressional opponents of the pipeline will for sure demand that it extract a pound of flesh from Germany as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is but the latest example of U.S. reliance on sanctions as a substitute for policy toward Russia and the illogic of U.S. repeated attempts to force it to change its destructive course with little or no effect, while expecting different results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Nord Stream 2 sanctions represent one of those rare issues in Washington on which both political parties agree, and which have few, if any, constituents in home districts whose interests would be damaged by hitting Russian President Vladimir Putin hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such faux bipartisanship is an invitation to proceed with little regard for the sanctions\u2019 immediate effect or their likely longer-term consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2021\/03\/31\/putins-pipeline-of-aggression-how-the-nord-stream-2-threatens-the-west\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1138581906.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Putin\u2019s pipeline of aggression: How the Nord Stream 2 threatens the West<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">It is very encouraging to see that more and more countries in Europe are waking up to the problem, but it is high time Germany took the wake-up call seriously.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the key arguments against Nord Stream 2 put forth by its opponents is that it will enable Russia to increase its stranglehold on Europe\u2019s energy supply. True, Russia accounts for about <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/statistics-explained\/pdfscache\/46126.pdf\" target=_blank>45 percent<\/a> of European Union gas imports \u2014 down from <a href=\"https:\/\/ecfr.eu\/archive\/page\/-\/ECFR-09-BEYOND_DEPENDENCE-HOW_TO_DEAL_WITH_RUSSIAN_GAS.pdf\" target=_blank>75 percent<\/a> in 1990. But it also supplies almost <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/statistics-explained\/pdfscache\/46126.pdf\" target=_blank>30 percent<\/a> of its oil imports \u2014 not a trivial amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, nobody talks about Russian oil trade with Europe as a stranglehold. The reason is simple: Oil is a fungible commodity that is traded in vast quantities in physical and futures markets that Russia does not control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Russia is no longer the dominant supplier of gas to Europe it once was. More suppliers, major reforms introduced by the European Union, infrastructure investments (including liquefied natural gas terminals and new pipelines to connect underserved markets), and sluggish demand for gas have reduced Russian leverage and empowered its customers to negotiate better prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Europe\u2019s ambitious Green New Deal aimed at dramatically reducing the continent\u2019s carbon footprint, Nord Stream 2 will reduce, not increase Russian leverage. The pipeline is <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.ru\/ekonomika\/11047027?utm_source=twitter.com&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_campaign=smm_social_share\" target=_blank>95 percent<\/a> complete, and Russia, having invested $11 billion in it, will not abandon it. But it will be hardly the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barrasso.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/2021\/3\/senators-biden-admin-must-impose-sanctions-on-russia-s-nord-stream-ii-pipeline\" target=_blank>stranglehold<\/a>\u201d on Europe\u2019s gas supply its opponents charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From 2014, when the Kremlin illegally annexed Crimea and went to war with Ukraine, multiple rounds of U.S. sanctions have not forced Russia to abandon its aggressive policies. If anything, it has become even bolder in the past seven years. Sanctions have not prevented Russian military interventions in Syria and Libya, or meddling in U.S. domestic politics, all of which have intensified as the United States has imposed evermore sanctions on the Kremlin and its malign agents. To be sure, they have had a punitive effect, but when it comes to getting the Kremlin to cease and desist, there is little chance of it happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The post-2014 U.S. reliance on sanctions as the principal element of its policy toward Russia is even more problematic when one looks at the overall U.S.-Russian relations since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. For nearly a quarter century, expanding trade and economic relations with Russia was one of the staples of U.S. policy intended to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052702303836404577475061208876588\" target=_blank>stabilize the relationship<\/a>. Successive U.S. administrations encouraged U.S. oil companies to invest in the Russian energy sector. U.S. business executives joined senior U.S. officials on trips to Russia to promote trade and investment. Senior U.S. government officials attended forums of U.S. and Russian business leaders, whose participants included such prominent figures as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld before they resumed their public service. The Obama administration was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-rosneft-exxon\/exxon-rosneft-tie-up-in-russian-arctic-u-s-idINTRE77T2OM20110831\" target=_blank>for Exxon Mobil Corp.\u2019s massive deal<\/a> with Russia\u2019s Rosneft to develop Arctic oil deposits in 2011 before it turned against it and killed it with sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The irony of the situation with Nord Stream 2 sanctions is that unlike Russia, Iran or North Korea, Germany is a U.S. treaty ally \u2014 the most important U.S. ally in Europe. Without its leadership and cooperation, there would have been no U.S.-EU sanctions to punish Russia for its malign activities. Threats to punish Germany sound outright frivolous when the United States is buying oil from Russia \u2014 over half a million barrels a day in 2020, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-03-24\/russia-oil-demand-hits-record-high-in-u-s-amid-rising-tensions?sref=QmOxnLFz\" target=_blank>Bloomberg<\/a> \u2014 and contributing many millions of dollars to Putin\u2019s war chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Biden administration has pledged to rebuild ties to U.S. allies badly frayed during the four years of the Trump presidency. U.S. sanctions against Nord Stream 2 would amount to a self-defeating move that might not cause a major injury to the crucial U.S. ally in Europe, but for sure would be an insult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nord Stream 2 sanctions are a matter of U.S. law. But the law also allows a waiver. Setting the terms for that waiver in consultation with Berlin is the way out of the impasse. No U.S. president would ever tolerate the kind of meddling in U.S. sovereignty that sanctions on Nord Stream 2 would represent. There is no reason to subject U.S. ally Germany to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Eugene Rumer is the director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously worked as a national intelligence officer on Russia and Eurasia for the U.S. National Intelligence Council.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Threats to punish Germany sound outright frivolous when the United States is buying oil from Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":66,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,160,46,11,36,17,48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[4290],"class_list":["post-21414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","category-opinion","category-the-americas"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4SFS4WF5LBDMBGKW7P4RUDESLQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2021\/04\/08\/punishing-germany-for-nord-stream-2-does-nothing-to-stop-putin\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Punishing Germany for Nord Stream 2 does nothing to stop Putin - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Threats to punish Germany sound outright frivolous when the United States is buying oil from Russia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Punishing Germany for Nord Stream 2 does nothing to stop Putin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Threats to punish Germany sound outright frivolous when the United States is buying oil from Russia.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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