The USA Is Working on a Coalition against Nord Stream 2

The United States hopes the pipeline will not be finished, the head of the State Department said. Michael Pompeo expects that after Navalny poisoning, Berlin will see in the Nord Stream 2 the risk of gas dependence from the Russian Federation. US State Secretary Michael Pompeo has once again attacked the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline under construction. "We hope the construction will not be completed," the head of the State Department said in a video interview with the online edition of the German newspaper Das Bild on Monday, September 21. Washington is working to build a coalition to prevent this, Pompeo added. According to the US, the pipeline makes Europe dependent on Russian gas and also threatens Ukraine. Washington expects that the German authorities will begin assessing Nord Stream 2 in a similar vein because of what happened to the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny or because of the security threats posed by dependence on Russian gas. The resonance around the situation with the Russian politician sparked discussions in Germany and Europe about possible sanctions imposition that would affect the gas pipeline under construction. Alexei Navalny’s poisoning The Russian got sick on the board of the plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. The liner urgently landed in Omsk, where the politician was hospitalized. On August 22, at the request of his relatives, he was taken for treatment to the Charite clinic in Berlin. The oppositionist was in an artificial coma for 19 days. Experts from German armed forces special laboratory, at the request of the clinic, carried out a toxicological analysis of samples taken from Navalny and found traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group. Later, the German side turned to verify their results in Sweden and France laboratories and came to the same conclusions. Washington "made it clear the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable," the US Secretary of State said. The United States has reacted harshly to using chemical weapons against former double agent Sergei Skripal, Pompeo added. Moscow has denied accusations of assassination attempt involvement on the opposition leader and has sent several requests for legal assistance to Berlin.