{"id":1326220,"date":"2022-02-22T09:38:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T14:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1326220"},"modified":"2022-02-22T09:38:56","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T14:38:56","slug":"germany-blocks-nord-stream-2-pipeline-after-putin-recognizes-breakaway-regions-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/germany-blocks-nord-stream-2-pipeline-after-putin-recognizes-breakaway-regions-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany Blocks Nord Stream 2 Pipeline After Putin Recognizes Breakaway Regions in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgermany-blocks-nord-stream-2-pipeline-after-putin-recognizes-breakaway-regions-in-ukraine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1326220&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-22T135854Z_3_LYNXMPEI1L0GU_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-USA-SENATE-scaled-e1645540002265.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>By Sarah Marsh and Madeline Chambers<\/p>\n<p>BERLIN (Reuters)\u2014Germany on Tuesday halted the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany, after Russia formally recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Europe&#8217;s most divisive energy project, worth $11 billion, was finished in September, but has stood idle pending certification by Germany and the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>The pipeline had been set to ease the pressure on European consumers facing record energy prices amid a wider post-pandemic cost of living crisis, and on governments that have already forked out billions to try to cushion the impact on consumers.<\/p>\n<p>But on Tuesday the European benchmark gas price, currently the Dutch March contract, was up 9.2 percent to 78.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) at 1337 GMT.<\/p>\n<p>Dmitry Medvedev, Russia&#8217;s former president and now deputy chairman of its Security Council, tried to rub salt in that wound.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Welcome to the new world where Europeans will pay 2,000 euros for gas!&#8221; he said, according to the news agency RIA.<\/p>\n<p>Germany obtains half its gas from Russia and had argued that Nord Stream 2 was primarily a commercial project to diversify energy supplies for Europe.<\/p>\n<p>But despite the potential benefits, it had faced opposition within the European Union and from the United States on the grounds that it would increase Europe&#8217;s energy dependence on Russia as well as denying transit fees to Ukraine, host to another Russian gas pipeline, and making it more vulnerable to Russian invasion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This a huge change for German foreign policy with massive implications for energy security and Berlin&#8217;s broader position towards Moscow,&#8221; said Marcel Dirsus, non-resident fellow at Kiel University&#8217;s Institute for Security Policy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It suggests that Germany is actually serious about imposing tough costs on Russia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2018TRUE LEADERSHIP&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted his approval.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a morally, politically and practically correct step in the current circumstances,&#8221; he said. &#8220;True leadership means tough decisions in difficult times. Germany&#8217;s move proves just that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had asked the economy ministry to make sure certification could not take place at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The appropriate departments \u2026 will make a new assessment of the security of our supply in light of what has changed in last few days,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Germany&#8217;s gas supply was secured even without Nord Stream 2.<\/p>\n<p>But he told journalists in Duesseldorf that gas prices were indeed likely to rise further in the short term.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom owns half the pipeline, and the rest is split between Shell, Austria&#8217;s OMV, France&#8217;s Engie, Germany&#8217;s Uniper and Wintershall DEA.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Network Agency \u2013 which regulates Germany&#8217;s electricity, gas, telecommunications, post and railway sectors \u2013 suspended the certification process in November, saying Nord Stream 2 must register a legal entity in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts had expected it to pick up the procedure in mid-year after the operator did as requested.<\/p>\n<p>But the regulator said on Tuesday that the required positive assessment by the economy ministry was no longer available. The Nord Stream 2 operating company said it was waiting to be properly notified of the halt.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Madeline Chambers; Additional Reporting by Joseph Nasr, Andreas Rinke, Christoph Steitz and Reuters TV in Germany and Susanna Twidale in London; Editing by Kevin Liffey)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sarah Marsh and Madeline Chambers BERLIN (Reuters)\u2014Germany on Tuesday halted the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1326220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1326220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1326220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1326220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1326220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}