(RepublicanInformer.com)- Apparently President Biden has come to regret his decision to waive sanctions related to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Back in May, Biden waived sanctions against the Russian-owned company behind the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany just weeks before he sat down with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Biden argued at the time that he decided to waive the sanctions since the project is nearly complete, adding to impose sanctions now “would be counterproductive now in terms of our European relations.”
Well, last Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions on one Russian vessel and two Russians involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline over fears that the pipeline could be exploited by Moscow to weaponize energy deliveries against European allies.
Which, by the way, was the central reason the Trump administration imposed sanctions in the first place. His administration knew all along that Europe becoming dependent on Russia for energy could put them in an untenable position. So why did Biden waive those sanctions three weeks before meeting with Putin?
Blinken submitted to Congress a report that lists the Russian entities to be sanctioned under the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019. The total number of entities now sanctioned under this act for their involvement in Nord Stream 2 comes to seven persons and sixteen vessels.
Blinken’s announcement occurred on the same day President Biden issued an executive order allowing for sanctions to be imposed on “certain Russian energy pipeline projects.”
In a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President Biden explained that the executive order is in response to Russian energy pipeline projects that are intended to “expand Russia’s influence over Europe’s energy resources” which would weaken energy security in Europe, including in Ukraine and Eastern NATO and EU countries “and thereby threatens the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
That has always been the case. So again, why did President Biden waive sanctions in late May before his meeting with Vladimir Putin?
Speaking of Putin. On Friday he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow. During their meeting, President Putin announced that the Nord Stream project is nearly complete having only 9 miles left to construct.
Both Putin and Merkel are determined to finalize the pipeline despite vehement opposition from the US, Ukraine and other NATO countries.
