Biden’s administration has not been able to show how it will shut down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany if Moscow invades Ukraine. Allies and foes in Europe have cast doubt on White House deterrence efforts.
On Monday, President Joe Biden declared that “I promise you” we’ll be in a position to end the energy pipeline. The pipeline runs through the Baltic Sea and has not yet started operations. This was during a joint press conference held with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after a bilateral meeting at White House. Washington’s latest attack on Moscow was the commander in chief’s threat. This comes as Western powers become increasingly worried about Russia’s more than 100,000 troops gathered at its border with the ex-Soviet state.
It boasts of unprecedented economic sanctions that it has prepared and would immediately target Russian President Vladmir Putin’s inner circle as a consequence of invasion. Additionally, it has activated or deployed thousands of U.S. troops for possible operations in Eastern Europe. It has not yet provided any details on how it will seize a crucial source of Russian energy from an ally and Europe’s largest economy.
When asked about Tuesday’s threats, one of the top U.S. envoys in Europe declined to answer specifics.
“The president was very clear that if Russia invades Ukraine in any way, Nord Stream 2 won’t move forward,” Michael Carpenter (permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), told a small group reporters. He had very positive meetings with the German chancellor at Washington.
Carpenter stated that “and we have had extensive consultations avec our German allies over a course of the past many, many weeks, and months in fact since July last year.” Carpenter was referring to a July 2020 deal in the which Germany and the U.S. promised to respond to Russian attempts to use energy as an weapon against Ukraine and other regional countries. “We will continue to have these consultations going forward.”
Scholz declined to speak as strongly as Biden in their public appearances and subsequent media interviews.
“As the president stated, we are preparing to that. You can understand that Germany, along with its allies and the United States, will take the same steps. Scholz stated that there will be no differences in this situation on Monday to CNN.
Russia seems unaffected by the threats, and indicated Tuesday that it is ready to make the Biden administration follow through on its promises.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said Monday that the topic of Nord Stream 2 was not a “key topic for discussion” but might be brought up in passing.
Russian state news agency Tass posted a Tuesday morning post quoting several Russian energy experts, claiming that Biden’s claims only serve to worsen the situation in Ukraine. They also pressure European partners to accept U.S. natural-gas shipments over Russians. According to an unnamed source, European countries are still unsure about Biden’s plans and German officials are less confident about their willingness to support the U.S. in case of military action in or around Ukraine.
“If Europe wants to overcome this crisis, then they can only do so by relying upon Russian gas and developing energy ties with Russia,” Alexei Grivach said at the Valdai Discussion Club in Russia, Russia’s most prestigious international forum. The rest of the options are dangerous, expensive and long.
This assessment is not necessarily supported by Western analysts.
Ulrich Speck is a senior visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. He says that Germany has been investing in Russia for over 20 years to encourage its economic modernization. This is similar to similar U.S. efforts in China. Both Western countries believed that these investments could lead to political change.
“That time has passed,” Speck stated at an event hosted Monday by the Hudson Institute. “Our political interests are not incompatible with our economic bonds with Russia and China.” This is why Germany’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline becomes a problem.
“Now all these economic relations are becoming geopolitically troublesome and [Germany] has to] change its attitude towards Russia and China. He said that it is a huge, complex process of reorientation. It takes a lot. Even though she was sometimes harsh on Russia, [Former Chancellor Angela] Merkel wasn’t willing to do it at the end. She didn’t change the overall relationship. This realization that we must accept tensions with Russia is the biggest challenge for the Germans and the German mentality.
