Russian Foreign Ministry Slams 'Senseless Politicization' Of Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

Russian Foreign Ministry Slams 'Senseless Politicization' of Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

Russia's Foreign Ministry defended on Wednesday the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a way of strengthening its energy ties with Europe and rejected repeated attempts to politicize the project

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2019) Russia's Foreign Ministry defended on Wednesday the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a way of strengthening its energy ties with Europe and rejected repeated attempts to politicize the project.

The statement came in response to a story in Estonia's Postimees daily that gave voice to a questionable research group of so-called foreign policy experts, called Rethink The Deal, which advocates ending the project.

"Nord Stream 2 is economically beneficial both to Russia and European consumers. Its main goal is to strengthen energy cooperation between Russia and Europe. The media hype around this project and its senseless politicization are absolutely unacceptable," the story read.

The foreign ministry said that there were no known experts among the "researchers" who presented their alleged findings of the harm of allowing the project to progress.

Pipeline critics used the same old list of clichéd threats at their conference in Strasbourg last month, from watering down EU energy security safeguards to polluting Baltic waters, the ministry added.

The ministry also noted that the research group's talk about the need to increase the share of liquefied natural gas in the EU energy mix echoed that of the United States, which has long been trying to sell more Liquefied natural gas to Europe.

Nord Stream 2 is expected to become operational later this year. The twin pipeline will carry 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Germany when it reaches its full capacity. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said it is a purely private business matter.