The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is unlikely to become operational in case of Russia’s "aggression on Ukraine," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with NBC on Sunday.
"That pipeline <…> doesn’t have any gas flowing through it right now and, in fact, is a source of leverage on Russia, because to the extent President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin wants to see gas flowing through that pipeline if and when it becomes operational, it’s very unlikely or hard to see that happening if Russia has renewed its aggression on Ukraine, if it takes renewed action," he said. "So I think President Putin has to factor that in too as he’s thinking about what he’s going to do next."
Recently, Western countries and Ukraine have been speaking about Russia’s possible aggression against Ukraine. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov slammed such statements as hollow and groundless tension-fanning. He stressed that Russia is a threat to no one but did not rule out possible provocations to justify such statements and warned that attempts at using force to settle the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have the most serious consequences.
The Russian side has repeatedly stressed that Nord Stream 2 is an entirely commercial project that is being implemented jointly with European partners. Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov expressed resentment over attempts of a number of countries to link the future of the project to politically-motivated circumstances. Moscow has also repeatedly stressed that it has never used energy resources as an instrument of pressure.
