The White House defended President Joe Biden’s decision to lift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline last year after Germany halted the project due to Russia’s mounting aggression against Ukraine.
Certification of the $11 billion Russia-backed gas pipeline was suspended following Russia’s decision to move troops into separatist-backed regions of Ukraine on Monday night.
“The president has never been a supporter of Nord Stream 2,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. “We’ve always criticized it as a project that we didn’t support.”
The decision by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday “was not by accident,” she added.
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Asked why Biden lifted sanctions on the project last year, Psaki said the president “didn’t feel that issuing preemptive sanctions on that was the right step.”
The decision was criticized at the time, including by members of Congress who viewed the gas project as a tactic by Russia to force Western European countries’ reliance on Moscow.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, a top White House official echoed the criticism and said halting the pipeline would end Moscow’s “geostrategic chokehold” over Europe through its supply of gas.
Daleep Singh, Biden’s deputy National Economic Council director, called Scholz’s decision “a major turning point in the world’s energy independence from Russia.”
Psaki declined to say definitively whether the pipeline could come back online but suggested it was unlikely.
“Nord Stream 2 is not moving forward,” she added. “In terms of the future, we’ve never felt it was a good project. We’ve been clear about that, and that assessment — I don’t expect a change in the future.”
After sanctions were lifted in May, the pipeline was completed and awaiting final certification.
The decision to halt the pipeline came ahead of a sweep of economic penalties on Russia in response to its aggression toward Ukraine.
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“These are severe costs that we’re imposing,” a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday. “Putin’s prize pipeline — he poured $11 billion into building the pipeline — it would have provided billions of dollars each year in revenues. That is now shut down after very close consultations overnight with Germany.”
