Germany's decision to halt the Nord Stream 2 project will irrevocably affect relations with Russia, says ministry.

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/Berlin's decision to halt certification of the Nord Stream 2 project will cause irreversible damage to Russian-German relations, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment.

"We would like to state that Berlin's decision to halt the project will result in irreversible damage to Russo-German relations, which have been far from transparent in recent years through no fault of our own. Responsibility for the consequences of these illegitimate actions, which call into question Germany's reputation as a reliable foreign economic partner, rests entirely with the German side," the document says.

"We believe that the decision by the German authorities to terminate the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is unacceptable and detrimental from the point of view of international commercial law standards," said Zakharova.

"We believe this is a classic precedent of using the trade project as a political weapon against us, which the West in general, and official Berlin in particular, so often blame on Moscow," he added.

"The aforementioned instruction to the German regulator was given by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which recently spoke about the project as a purely commercial initiative of private investors. Furthermore, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself, who directly initiated the aforementioned actions, had previously assured that the Nord Stream 2 certification process is exclusively regulatory in nature and cannot in any way be related to the political situation," Zakharova noted.

"It is now obvious that the German authorities were inconsistent and 'fell into the temptation of using the project as leverage to pressure Russia, thus showing their inability to separate politics and economics'," the diplomat emphasizes in her commentary.

"The direct political ban on Nord Stream 2 certification, introduced on February 22, is the logical high point of the aforementioned doctrine of prioritizing politics over economics in the context of its implementation," said Zakharova.

Increase in gas prices in the EU as a consequence

"In this context, our position regarding energy cooperation with Germany and with Europe as a whole remains unchanged," Zakharova stressed. She recalled that Russia has always emphasized the purely economic and commercial nature of Nord Stream 2 and its compliance with EU regulations.

"The timely commissioning of this pipeline would be in the interest of both Russia and Europe. Beyond the mutual benefit, the new route was designed to contribute to the diversification of gas supply and become a stabilizing component for the European gas market. Apparently, this will not happen in the near future, as the project has become hostage to artificial manipulation of other political plots. As we have already seen, the inevitable consequence of abandoning Nord Stream 2 will be a rapid increase in gas prices in the European market," he concluded.

Situation surrounding Nord Stream 2

On February 22, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that the German government was suspending certification of the Nord Stream 2 project after Russia recognized the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. The following day, US President Joe Biden ordered his administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its leadership in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine.

The construction of Nord Stream 2 was fully completed on September 10, 2021. Initially, it was planned to be completed before the end of 2019, but due to sanctions from Washington, construction was delayed. The pipeline consists of two strands with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year, running from the coast of Russia across the Baltic Sea to Germany.

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