The Biden administration’s move to waive sanctions on the corporate entity and CEO overseeing the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany is expected to draw criticism from Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford and others who earlier had expressed dissatisfaction over the issue.
During the Presidential campaign last fall, Biden accused then-President Trump of being soft on Russia over the pipeline and in the first 2020 presidential debate called Trump “Putin’s puppy.” But as the news group Axios reported this week, Biden turned around and did the very thing he accused Trump of doing.
Axios reporter Jonathan Swan wrote why it matters, “The decision indicates the Biden administration is not willing to compromise its relationship with Germany over this pipeline, and it underscores the difficulties President Biden faces in matching actions to rhetoric on a tougher approach to Russia.”
Sen. Lankford has been a critic of the Biden administration’s failure to stop the pipeline and wrote in a February newsletter, in which he was disappointed over Biden’s move to stop the Keystone XL pipeline,
” Ironically, a few days later President Biden lifted the pressure against the Russian natural gas pipeline (Nord Stream 2) to Germany that is a problem for the future of Europe. So, now it is official American policy to not move oil from Canada by pipeline, but to protect Russia’s pipelines to Europe. Hard to figure this out.”
He and Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso followed up their pressure on Biden with a March 3 letter to the President.
“We write to express our deep concern about the refusal of the Administration to impose sanctions on entities involved in the Nord Stream II pipeline,” they began and moved on to urge the President to implement sanctions.
“The failure of the Administration to identify and impose new sanctions signals its willingness to allow President Put to gain a stranglehold over Europe’s gas supplies and increase its geopolitical leverage,” stated the two Senators.
They also pointed out how Biden had previously called the pipeline a “bad deal for Europe.”
As Axios pointed out in its breaking story Tuesday evening, the sanctions are only against a handful of Russian ships working to complete the pipeline.
“This planned move seems at odds with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statement, made during his confirmation hearing: “I am determined to do whatever we can to prevent that completion” of Nord Stream 2,” wrote Axios.