US president harshly criticized Berlin during his breakfast with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week, claiming it's inappropriate that Germany was “making massive oil and gas deals with Russia,” adding that “Germany is totally controlled” by Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in the RT interview to Larry King that Trump's threats to impose sanctions on companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 had no economic basis.
“United States Secretary Mr [Rick] Perry said that the North Stream 2 pipeline must be stopped and those European companies participating in this project would be sanctioned by the United States because the United States is for competition, Russian authoritarian gas is supposed to be worse than the democratic American gas, then I am awfully sorry, but this is not economy, this is not competition, this is pure ideology,” the minister said.
Why Europe Will Ignore Trump's Wrath Over Nord Stream 2
Trump has previously demanded that the German government drop the project in order to secure a trade deal with Washington, which would not include high aluminum and steel tariffs.
The US has repeatedly urged European countries to not participate in Nord Stream 2, threatening to impose sanctions on European energy companies involved in the project. According to Washington, Nord Stream 2 violates the energy security of the EU and also undermines the interests…
