Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday that he hopes Nord Stream 2 will never become operational, calling Germany's dependence on Russian gas a "huge mistake."
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2022) Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday that he hopes Nord Stream 2 will never become operational, calling Germany's dependence on Russian gas a "huge mistake."
"There was this huge, huge mistake made by the Germans in their policy of dependency on Russian gas," Morawiecki said during a live online interview with The Washington Post. "They have built Nord Stream 1, and then Nord Stream 2, which was about to be operational, and the war broke out ... I hope it is never going to be operational in the future."
Morawiecki added that Poland was independent of Russian gas, having just finished building a new pipeline linking it with Norway and Denmark. As for other fossil fuels, Poland was able to quickly replace Russian imports, he said, adding that this was a rare situation in Europe.
Prior to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline connecting Russia with Germany supplied EU countries with about 35% of the gas they imported from Russia. The pipeline is owned and operated by Nord Stream, which is majority owned by Russia's state-owned Gazprom.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline has not transported any gas since August when Russia shut it down, citing maintenance issues. Nord Stream 2 has never been put into operation, as Germany halted the certification process last year.
On September 26, a rapid gas pressure drop and fuel leakage were detected along both the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. Initial investigations by Swedish and Danish authorities pointed toward likely sabotage, leading the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to investigate the incident as an act of international terrorism.
