MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th December, 2021) The European Union is turning the Nord Stream 2 project into a bargaining chip in its confrontation against Russia, and European officials are ready to pay from their own pockets to demonstrate "Atlantic solidarity," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said.
The official mentioned that "no one is planning to attack Ukraine" when commenting on Berlin's statement that the project will not be put into operation if the situation escalates.
"But even without this, it should not be dramatized, because, for a long time, thanks to the efforts of our American colleagues and a large group of politicians and decision-makers in the EU apparatus, the Nord Stream 2 project has become a bargaining chip in their own game of raising stakes," Ryabkov said in an interview with the Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn magazine, published on Friday.
The official added that some politicians in the EU are "ready to pay money from their own pockets, demonstrating their Atlantic solidarity in the fight against Moscow."
