US targets Putin’s pipelines from Baltic Sea to Balkans
Russian President Vladimir Putin has frequently been accused of using energy supplies as a geopolitical weapon. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS via REUTERS)
The US has begun 2021 by delivering a series of sanctions blows that leave the future of Vladimir Putin’s USD 11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline project in grave doubt. The latest American measures appear to have succeeded in forcing insurance, certification, and engineering firms to distance themselves from the geopolitically sensitive energy infrastructure project.
Moscow remains publicly defiant and bullish over the prospects of completing the unfinished pipeline, but it seems that Russia’s gas producer Gazprom is under no such illusions. A January 19 Reuters report claims Gazprom acknowledged in a recent Eurobond prospectus that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project may be suspended or scrapped amid political pressure.
Jan 13, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) –Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has canceled what would have been his final official trip abroad as concerns grow over potential violence at next week’s presidential inauguration, the State Department said Tuesday.
Less than 18 hours after announcing that Pompeo would be traveling to Brussels this week to close out his tenure as America’s top diplomat, the department said it had pulled down all senior-level overseas travel, including the secretary’s. Pompeo was to have met with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Belgium’s foreign minister while in Brussels. Initial plans for a stop in Luxembourg had been already been scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has canceled what would have been his final official trip abroad as concerns grow over potential violence at next week's presidential inauguration, the State Department said Tuesday. Less than 18 hours after announcing that Pompeo would be traveling to Brussels this week to close out