U.S. warns German companies of possible sanctions over Russian pipeline

[webfact]

U.S. warns German companies of possible sanctions over Russian pipeline

By Michael Nienaber

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell arrives for a ceremony in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States has warned German companies involved in the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that they could face sanctions if they stick with the project.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Germany of being a "captive" of Moscow because of its reliance on Russian energy and urged it to halt work on the $11 billion gas pipeline.

 

The pipeline, which would carry gas straight to Germany under the Baltic Sea, has also been criticized in some quarters because it would deprive Ukraine of lucrative gas transit fees, potentially making Kiev more vulnerable in the future.

 

U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell addressed the issue in a letter sent to several companies, the U.S. Embassy said on Sunday.

 

"The letter reminds that any company operating in the Russian energy export pipeline sector is in danger under CAATSA of U.S. sanctions," the embassy spokesman said, adding that other European states also opposed the planned pipeline.

 

Germany and European allies accuse Washington of using its Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to meddle in their foreign and energy policies.

 

Russian gas giant Gazprom <GAZP.MM> is implementing the project jointly with Western partners Uniper <UN01.DE>, Wintershall <BASFn.DE>, Engie <ENGIE.PA>, OMV <OMVV.VI> and Shell <RDSa.AS>.

 

The letter raised eyebrows within Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.

 

One German diplomat said the ambassador's approach did not follow common diplomatic practice and that Berlin would address the issue in direct talks with officials in Washington.

 

'UNACCEPTABLE THREATS'

Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's conservatives in parliament, was scathing in his criticism of the U.S. move.

 

"That the U.S. ambassador is now turning to German companies with direct threats is a new and unacceptable one-sided tightening of the tone in the transatlantic relationship," Hardt said.

 

"If the U.S. president thinks he has to publicly show he is getting tough on Russia in view of the many question marks regarding his relationship with Moscow, he should not thereby impair the relationship with his most important ally."

 

There was no comment on Sunday from the German companies involved in the project. A Uniper spokesman declined to comment and Wintershall did respond immediately to a request for comment.

 

Germany and Russia have been at odds since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. However, both have a common interest in the Nord Stream 2 project, which is expected to double capacity of the existing Nord Stream 1 route.

 

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, which was first to report news of the letter, said that Grenell was trying to blackmail German companies, drawing a sharp denial from the U.S. Embassy.

 

"The only thing that could be considered blackmail in this situation would be the Kremlin having leverage over future gas supplies," the embassy spokesman said.

 

The letter was coordinated in Washington by several U.S. government agencies and "is not meant to be a threat but a clear message of U.S. policy", the spokesman added.

 

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Thursday said that any U.S. sanctions against Nord Stream 2 would be the wrong way to solve the dispute and that questions of European energy policy had to be decided in Europe, not in the United States.

 

(Additional reporting by Christina Amann and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Mark Heinrich and David Goodman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-14

[billd766]

AFAIR Germany is NOT a state (vassal or otherwise) of the USA.

 

Germany is NOT under any US laws nor have they broken any US laws and have the right to obtain resources from any country that they wish.

 

IMO it is close to the time that many countries applied sanctions against the USA.

 

The USA, under Trump, has done more to damage international relationships and to destabilise its allies in 2 years than the cold war did in 30 years.

 

Is there no-one in the USA who could rid the world of this troublesome POTUS?

[Longcut]

Name a country that would be willing to impose sanctions against the worlds largest economy.

[Becker]

Let me see if I get this straight;

The US threatens German companies with sanctions due to their contacts with Russia yet all the while there is a person in the WH who it is increasingly likely is Putin's b puppet?

Okey dokey....

[Becker]

15 minutes ago, Longcut said:

Name a country that would be willing to impose sanctions against the worlds largest economy.

The relevance being??

[Longcut]

12 minutes ago, Becker said:

The relevance being??

It was in response to this;

 

IMO it is close to the time that many countries applied sanctions against the USA.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Longcut

[tifino]

5 minutes ago, Longcut said:

It had relevance until the other person's post was deleted. Now it looks as though I am just making a statement for no reason. Oh well!

well, you have 26...no no 25 mins left to delete (the content of) your statement response, in principal! 

Must be been pretty off, that deleted one? Deleting in toto cannot be done by the Poster himself!

Edited January 14, 2019 by tifino

[Becker]

30 minutes ago, Longcut said:

Name a country that would be willing to impose sanctions against the worlds largest economy.

Iran.

http://www.shlegal.com/insights/iran-imposes-reciprocal-sanctions-on-us-entities

Any more questions please feel free to ask.

[billd766]

31 minutes ago, Longcut said:

Name a country that would be willing to impose sanctions against the worlds largest economy.

The EU which is already upset with the USA over the Iran sanctions, Iran, Russia, China.

 

That is around 30 countries already.

[Kasset Tak]

Yes, sanction Wintershall and then I hope their mother company pull all their production and sales out of US... We are talking BASF, the largest chemical producer in the world and owner of Bayer and Mosanto, the 2 largest agro chemical companies in the world...
I think that if US farmers has less seeds and and chemicals, then US will have to starts import food from the poor African countries and there by boost the African economy!!!

[billd766]

11 minutes ago, Longcut said:

It was in response to this;

 

IMO it is close to the time that many countries applied sanctions against the USA.

 

Try looking at my post #2 which I can see is still on the thread and has not been deleted or modified by me.

 

 

[tifino]

4 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

Try looking at my post #2 which I can see is still on the thread and has not been deleted or modified by me.

 

 

righty oh! thanx - the way I had read things, some 'other' Post#2 was 'gone' and yours replaced it...

 

 

but the US is the biggest economy!

I thought it was the biggest deficit... 

Edited January 14, 2019 by tifino

[Longcut]

50 minutes ago, Becker said:

Iran.

http://www.shlegal.com/insights/iran-imposes-reciprocal-sanctions-on-us-entities

Any more questions please feel free to ask.

The U.S. doesn't do business with Iran. They have sanctions against them.  I know it all sounds pretty silly. 

[losworld]

The US is simply defending Saudi Arabia who have wanted to build a pipeline to Europe but needs to put it through Syria...and you  thought the Syrian war was about human rights....

[ballpoint]

If I was a German business man/woman, I wouldn't be making any plans to transit through Canada in the near future.

[from the home of CC]

8 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

If I was a German business man/woman, I wouldn't be making any plans to transit through Canada in the near future.

no we bagged our Chinese limit for the season, the US will have to go fishing another way????

[zydeco]

3 hours ago, billd766 said:

Germany is NOT under any US laws nor have they broken any US laws and have the right to obtain resources from any country that they wish.

The US is not stopping them. And the US is not interfering. It is simply saying that if those companies choose to do business with Russia, then they cannot do business within the US. The US is also free to determine who it allows to do business within its own borders. Nobody is stopping the Germans from choosing Russia. But if they do so, they will be forced out of the US.

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

If the U.S. president thinks he has to publicly show he is getting tough on Russia in view of the many question marks regarding his relationship with Moscow, he should not thereby impair the relationship with his most important ally."

So..... das Germans tink trump a traitor, too

 

MAGA.... now this is one trump initiative I want to see some follow thru on... Germany will shi t.... goodbye American military bases in Europe (unless they want to ante up on nato spending bigly ????).... so funny.

 

I’m off to google when the nord stream project goes live ????????????

[farcanell]

Damn.... it’s not due online for another year.... c’mon donal, start some sanctions now!

 

I’m sure mexico will be happy to pay for a trans Atlantic pipeline for y’all.

[metisdead]

A profane post has been removed.

[fouryesrs]

3 hours ago, billd766 said:

The EU which is already upset with the USA over the Iran sanctions, Iran, Russia, China.

 

That is around 30 countries already.

the eu should stop all airlines that are usa owned to land or start in europe and make it illegal for europa airlines to fly to this country...just for a start

[fouryesrs]

1 hour ago, farcanell said:

So..... das Germans tink trump a traitor, too

 

MAGA.... now this is one trump initiative I want to see some follow thru on... Germany will shi t.... goodbye American military bases in Europe (unless they want to ante up on nato spending bigly ????).... so funny.

 

I’m off to google when the nord stream project goes live ????????????

germany need to get themselves some nukes because this weirdo with his followers are bad news..

[fouryesrs]

4 hours ago, Becker said:

The relevance being??

largest economy is china the dragon..usa is .a owboy chewing gum economy on the way down.since a long time...their micky mouse currency a bad joke for all healthy economies...they only number one in gun production and in sending their murder drones killing everybody opposing their banksters..all mafia system

[Grouse]

5 hours ago, billd766 said:

AFAIR Germany is NOT a state (vassal or otherwise) of the USA.

 

Germany is NOT under any US laws nor have they broken any US laws and have the right to obtain resources from any country that they wish.

 

IMO it is close to the time that many countries applied sanctions against the USA.

 

The USA, under Trump, has done more to damage international relationships and to destabilise its allies in 2 years than the cold war did in 30 years.

 

Is there no-one in the USA who could rid the world of this troublesome POTUS?

Can they build a pipeline to Iran?

[Becker]

33 minutes ago, fouryesrs said:

largest economy is china the dragon..usa is .a owboy chewing gum economy on the way down.since a long time...their micky mouse currency a bad joke for all healthy economies...they only number one in gun production and in sending their murder drones killing everybody opposing their banksters..all mafia system

Thanks for that valuable input.

[slk350]

The only reasen and the only reasen trump is against Nordsream is he want's tom sell American Fracking Gas to Europe by Ship .What a nutter !!!!

[ThaiFelix]

3 hours ago, Longcut said:

The U.S. doesn't do business with Iran. They have sanctions against them.  I know it all sounds pretty silly. 

No, the US doesnt do any business with Iran......well not openly that is. ????

[Tug]

Is Donald trying to bulley Germany I think we all see his (master negotiator skills)do as I say or I will stab you in the eye take heart he is an incompetent temp won’t be around much longer

Edited January 14, 2019 by Tug

[KhunBENQ]

Only in German - US relations it is possible that such "ambassador" is not declared persona non grata and have 24h to pack his bag.

[xtrnuno41]

As Taiwan is a annoying province of China , SO is Europe an annoying province of USA.

EUrope still hasnt a clue, they need to listen to USA.

Its about time they wake up here in Europe and consider USA as a potential danger to world peace and danger to economics for Europe and the world.

Afterall the idea of a EU is from USA and the first thing what went wrong for the EU, was the crisis starting in 2008. USA spread their cancer in an easy way, thanks to EU forming, all over the EU and the world. 

We know USA was spying on internet and phones from so called respectable leaders to gain for economic power. Ofcourse still they do. 

However with all of the power people who exist in the world, they think they are only ones on the world. They can and will destroy the world, if needed, for their own personal power games. They are no better than a Lenin, Stalin or Hitler. The world is full with them. and they are in control. 

They make a terrible world and it will never change, even make it worse in future.

We are on a road to where total indoctrination and suppression will control us all, at least some who are "clever" enough will exist and the others will be collateral damage.