Sen. Ted Cruz’s bid to impose sanctions on a controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline has bipartisan support — even though President Joe Biden’s administration is lobbying to kill the plan amid high-stakes negotiations with Russia.
“I’ve been consistent on ensuring that we are stopping the Russian aggression not only against Ukraine but the energy independence of the European Union,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, told the Washington Examiner. “I’ve supported the sanctions in the past, and I will continue to support them.”
Still, it’s not clear that the Texas Republican’s legislation will receive the nine other Democratic votes needed to break a filibuster this week. The pipeline, which is routed to allow Russia to send gas to Germany without passing through Ukraine, has been constructed but not yet certified, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to see the pipeline activated gives Western powers leverage as the Kremlin amasses troops on the Ukrainian border.
“It’s far better to impose sanctions before an invasion rather than after an invasion,” Cruz, a Texas Republican, told the Washington Examiner.
BLINKEN WARNS OF POSSIBLE RUSSIAN FALSE FLAG ATTACK AGAINST UKRAINE
The debate turns on an argument about whether Putin’s aggression will be curbed by the threat of economic sanctions or encouraged by the eventual activation of the controversial pipeline.
“Nord Stream is something that actually Putin wants, and right now, the Germans have stopped, at least in terms of the regulatory process,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat. “And they’ve made it very clear to Putin if he invades, then there’s no Nord Stream. Well, you lose that leverage if somehow Nord Stream is dead [anyway].”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disagrees and requested all of Ukraine’s “friends in the U.S. Senate” to back the new sanctions bill. A group of prominent Ukrainian activists likewise released a statement endorsing the sanctions, citing the threat of a Russian invasion as a reason to kill the energy project.
“We believe the green light given to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in May 2021 served as one of the key triggers for the current crisis and must be urgently revised,” the Ukrainian civil society representatives said in a message published by the Atlantic Council.
Whereas Menendez argues that killing the pipeline now might incline Putin to calculate that he has less to lose from at invasion, Cruz and the Ukrainian activists insist that pipeline’s activation would embolden the Kremlin. Russia ships gas to Western Europe via pipelines that flow through Ukraine, and, in their telling, its dependence on that Ukrainian route raises the costs of a prospective invasion.
“At present, Ukraine’s gas transit system is vital for the delivery of Russian energy supplies to the EU market,” the Ukrainian activists argued. “If Nord Stream 2 becomes operational, it will eliminate the deterrent value of Ukraine’s gas transit system and free Putin to expand his attack on the country.”
Biden waived a previous sanctions mandate in May in order to avoid a falling out with outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who supported the pipeline. U.S. and German officials agreed to reverse course if Putin were “to use energy as a weapon or commit further aggressive acts against Ukraine,” but Western allies have not done so in response to recent politically motivated restrictions on gas exports.
“It’s ludicrous to suggest that if they lack the strength to do so now, that somehow they would have greater resolve after Nord Stream 2 came online — after millions of Germans were relying upon it for heat during the brutal winter, that they would have more courage then than they do now,” Cruz said. “That’s not credible.”
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A vote on the legislation is expected this week. And while senators on both sides of the debate believe that the other position enhances the risk of war, Menendez acknowledged the uncomfortable misgiving that Putin might launch a new invasion regardless of how the Senate maneuvers.
“Putin may make this decision, and that’s it, no matter what happens,” the Senate Democrat said.
