Trump admin toughens stance against 2 Russian gas pipelines to Europe
The Trump administration on Wednesday hardened its efforts to prevent the completion of new German-Russian and Turkish-Russian pipelines by ending sanctions exemptions for companies involved in the projects and warning they’ll be subject to US penalties unless they halt their work.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the administration is ending grandfather clauses that had spared firms previously involved in the pipelines’ construction from sanctions authorized by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, a 2017 law aimed at punishing Russia, in particular, for interference in US elections and other matters.
The move opens the door for U.S. economic and financial penalties to be imposed on any European and other foreign company over the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream projects, including those that had been working on the pipelines before the passage of CAATSA and had been exempted from the penalties.
