MUNICH — Vice President Kamala Harris argued that a principled response to Russian aggression is warranted but could hurt American pocketbooks if gas prices rise. Opponents of a Russian energy pipeline ask where the White House has been.
At issue is a controversial Russia-to-Germany gas project owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom. The Biden administration lifted sanctions on the $11 billion pipeline last year as it sought to soothe ties with Europe.
Now pushing furiously to avert a war in Ukraine, President Joe Biden has pledged to shut down the Russian-owned pipeline if Moscow invades. Harris had traveled to Germany to meet with allies and partners during the Munich Security Conference against a backdrop of dire warnings over Ukraine’s fate.
But officials in Ukraine say the Biden administration has already lost leverage.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused trans-Atlantic leaders of adopting an “appeasement” policy towards Russia that had allowed the crisis on Ukraine’s borders to escalate, a hint at a troubling period from Europe’s past.
Set to power 26 million homes each year once up and running, penalties leveled under the Trump administration had halted the pipeline roughly 100 miles short of completion. Western leaders had resisted Washington’s effort to quash the project, and upon taking office, Biden was on their side.
“It’s almost completely finished … to go ahead and impose sanctions now, I think, is counter-productive,” Biden said in May 2021.
Bypassing Ukraine, the project slashes the lucrative transit fees that have helped boost Kyiv’s economy as gas travels from Russia to Europe across the former Soviet state.
“If Nord Stream 2 was not allowed to be built we would be much better off today,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a Ukrainian opposition lawmaker, in an interview with the Washington Examiner during the gathering.
Klympush-Tsintsadze, who chairs the Ukrainian parliament’s committee for integration into the European Union, said Washington should have seen Russia’s incursions in the country’s eastern territories as a marker of Putin’s broader ambitions. Instead, after taking office, Biden waived U.S. sanctions on Nord Stream 2 over Ukraine’s security objections.
She said the world is now on the backfoot responding to Russia’s demands. “We’ve been ringing the alarm bells about this from the very first moment,” the lawmaker added.
Zelensky’s nod to appeasement in Munich was a reminder of where in 1938 the leaders of Britain, France, and Italy allowed Hitler to carve off part of Czechoslovakia in exchange for a promise of peace.
“It was here three years ago when Angela Merkel said, ‘Who can pick up the pieces of the world’s puzzle? Only all of us together,’ she said, to a rush of audible excitement in the room, which stood up to applaud,” the Ukrainian leader said, retracing Merkel’s 2019 speech at the same conference.
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“Unfortunately, the collective ovation failed to transform into collective action. So, now the world is talking about the threat of a big war,” Zelensky said.
Germany, long a major consumer of Russian gas, had chafed at the prospect of a dormant Nord Stream 2 but has quieted objections under Washington’s duress.
“We, Germany, are prepared to pay a high economic price for this,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Friday.
On the outskirts of the conference, some Munich residents heaped scorn on the Russian-backed pipeline, though the criticism invited contradictions.
“It’s shaming,” said Andrea Falkenstein, speaking about former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who chairs the pipeline’s board.
Falkenstein reserved further disdain for current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whom she called meek and likened to a turtle. She said Germany deeply misses Merkel, who left office last year. “We want our mother back,” Falkenstein said.
But part of Merkel’s legacy is the surrender to Moscow over Nord Stream 2, which former European Council President Donald Tusk has called her biggest mistake.
Today the U.S. is threatening to hit Russian gas companies with sanctions if Putin mounts an offensive on Ukraine, declining Ukraine’s push to preempt Russian action with penalties now.
“The deterrence effect we believe has merit,” Harris said, as Washington pursue a diplomatic solution. “That window is still open.”
Harris maintained in a highly-anticipated address on Saturday that leaders in Munich had “achieved remarkable unity” in response to Russia’s threats and were determined “to uphold international rules and norms.”
Groups of German Polizei secured the perimeter of the tony Bayerischer Hof hotel, which hosts the annual get-together. Electric BMW convoys streamed in and out.
Harris’s unity pledge seemed out of step with members of the transatlantic alliance divided over whether Russian energy producers should fall into a possible sanctions package. On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi came out against the prospect and said that Putin was ready to send more gas to Italy.
Russia is the third-largest oil producer in the world, and a squeeze on its supply may lead to shortages in Europe and hike already-high global prices.
Harris said some costs may fall on Americans if war breaks out in Europe but argued that America’s role in the world demands leadership.
“When America stands for principles … it requires sometimes for us to put ourselves out there in a way that maybe we will incur some costs,” the vice president said. “In this situation, that may relate to energy costs.”
Tensions escalating in Ukraine have already been blamed for soaring gas prices. Prices briefly fell when Russia said it would pull back some troops from its military build-up on Ukraine’s borders, shooting back up once tensions returned.
Harris said the White House is working to address the risk, “taking very specific and appropriate … steps to mitigate what that cost might be if it happens.”
The vice president said the need to avert a Russian offensive on Europe’s borders should not be taken lightly. “We’re talking about the potential for war. Let’s really take a moment to understand the significance of what we’re talking about,” she said.
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In an address from the White House on Friday, Biden said he was now “convinced” Putin had decided to invade his neighbor to the west. American troops will not fight in Ukraine, but the president said Americans should steel themselves for the economic costs.
“I will not pretend this will be painless,” but responding forcefully to an attack on Ukraine was “about standing for what we believe in, for the future we want for our world, for liberty,” he said last week.
