Germany Tells US to ‘Mind Its Own Business’ as Congress Votes in Sanctions on Nord Stream Companies

With friends like these...

Editor’s note: I keep hearing how Russia and China are not allies because they aren’t as close and don’t have a formal treaty like the US and its European NATO “allies”. Well at least Russia and China don’t sanction each other’s economies. In fact it is the US and Germany which are not allies, that’s because the Empire does not have allies, only clients. The difference between the two being precisely that allies are entitled to their own separate interests where client states are not.


Germany on Thursday (12 December) warned Washington to mind its own business after US lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill that would sanction contractors working on a Russian pipeline to Germany. The EU also opposed sanctions against ‘companies doing legitimate business’.

“European energy policy is decided in Europe, not in the US,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter.

“We reject external interference,” he said.

The €9.5 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline will run under the Baltic Sea and is set to double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany.

EU OPPOSES SANCTIONS

The EU joined in criticising proposed US action.

EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said Brussels “opposes the imposition of sanctions against any EU companies conducting legitimate business”.

“The (European) Commission objective has always been to ensure that Nord Stream operates in a very transparent and in a non-discriminatory way with the appropriate degree of oversight,” he said.

Source: EurActiv


Under efforts to halt the construction of the $10.5-billion (€9.6-billion) Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, US lawmakers have imposed sanctions targeted primarily at companies providing pipelaying services to the project. The provisions were adopted on Wednesday as part of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which is an annual Department of Defense policy bill aimed at covering measures unrelated to defense.

The legislation gives the Trump administration 60 days to identify those companies and individuals providing such services, and allows for the revocation of US visas and the blocking of property of these individuals. It also gives 30 days to those targeted by the sanctions to wind down their operations.

After approval by the House, the US Senate will now have to vote on the bill, which will then go to US President Donald Trump for signing.

According to the US State Department the requested report could be delivered to Congress in less than a week, allowing sanctions to take hold in a compressed time frame. “We’re going to move quickly,” an official said Wednesday.

Some 627 companies are involved in building Nord Stream 2 — among them only two pipelaying specialist firms — Allseas Group from Switzerland and Italy’s Saipem. Allseas has deployed the world’s largest pipelaying vessel, the Pioneering Spirit, to complete the tube’s final offshore stretch.

On collision course

The German government has long prepared for sanctions and says it “rejects extraterritorial sanctions that affect German and European businesses.”

Matthias Schepp, managing director of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, has been terser in its rebuttal, rejecting Washington’s claim of a Russian stranglehold on the European gas market as a “fallacious argument.”

“A sober look at the facts clearly shows that we are less dependent on Russian gas than the Russians are dependent on hard currency from its gas exports to Europe,” he said in a statement Thursday, adding that America would only seek to sell its more expensive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Europe.

Schepp called on the government in Berlin to prepare countermeasures against Washington, which should also include imposing European sanctions.

The German Eastern Business Association (OAOEV), a trade and commerce body, spoke in a similar vein, saying US interference in the pipeline project should be regarded as “more than an unfriendly act.”

“America wants to sell its liquefied gas in Europe, for which Germany is building terminals. Should we arrive at the conclusion that US sanctions are intended to push competitors out of the European market, our enthusiasm for bilateral projects with the US will significantly cool,” OAOEV said in a statement Thursday.

Source: Deutsche Welle

9 Comments
  1. Voyager says

    The US has occupied Germany with its military bases since WW 2, time for Germany to free themselves from US occupation…. Yankees pack up your shit and go home, enough already.

  2. Garry Compton says

    Guilty of Crimes – Without one oz. of any evidence, that there is a Criminal, to begin with. Doesn’t matter if it’s an International incrimination or a Domestic one. Guilty ? – the NWO justice.

  3. Zaphod Braden says

    Time to “Shake It Off” the holcaust guilt trip of the last 75 years.

    The “STAR of DEATH” represents the ORIGINAL “Nazis”, the perpetrators and braggarts of the FIRST holocaust: FUNNY that everything they claim the nazis did is an EXACT COPY of what THEY BRAG about doing to the ORIGINAL Palestinians.
    Deuteronomy 7:16, 20:16 “And thou shalt consume all the peoples which the Lord thy God shall deliver unto thee; thine eye shall not pity them…thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.”

    KILL THE SICK and CRIPPLED
    Numbers c.5 v.2-4
    KILL HOMOSEXUALS & UNDESIRABLES
    Leviticus c.20 v.13 well, really the whole chapter
    KILL ALL DISSIDENTS:
    Exodus c.32 v.27
    Numbers c.11 v.1-2
    Numbers c.16 all
    Numbers c.21 v.5-6
    Numbers v.26 v.10
    KILL anyone who engages in “DIVERSITY” or “INTEGRATION”
    Numbers v25 v.4-8
    Deuteronomy c.14 v.2
    DEHUMANIZE and then EXTERMINATE ALL NON-MEMBERS:
    SEXUALLY ENSLAVE any females “who have not KNOWN a man”
    a very brief selection, many more in THEIR book.
    Numbers c.21 v.03 Canaanites
    Numbers c.21 v.24 Amorites
    Numbers c.21 v.33-35 Bashan
    Numbers c.31 all Midianites
    Numbers c.32 v. more Amorites
    Deuteronomy c.2 v.34 People of Heshbon
    Deuteronomy c.3 v.6 really the whole chapter. threescore cities
    Joshua c.12 A list of victims of Israeli GENOCIDE
    OCCUPY YOUR VICTIM’S DWELLINGS/LAND
    Numbers c.21 v.25
    Numbers c.32 v.39
    Numbers c.33 v.53
    (just to name a FEW)
    GENOCIDE CODIFIED IN THEIR RELIGION
    Numbers c.33 v.31-34
    Deuteronomy c.7 v.2
    Deuteronomy c.12 v.28-30
    Deuteronomy c.20 v.11-16
    TERRORISM CODIFIED IN THEIR RELIGION
    Deuteronomy c.2 v.2
    Deuteronomy c.7 v.1
    Jews SELF-anointed “The CHOSEN People of GOD”
    Nazis SELF-anointed “The CHOSEN People of GENETICS”.
    TODAY Israel states that it is creating “A PURE Jewish State”
    YESTERDAY the Nazis were creating “A PURE German State”
    And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword . . . (Joshua 6:21)

  4. Séamus Ó Néill says

    Every silly childish move that this bully makes, significantly increases the rate of the Empire’s demise. Under the laughable illusion that it rules the entire planet and every other nation is nothing but a subservient lackey, it ploughs on with its lamentable sanctions, unwittingly ensuring a severe and terminal retaliation. Cocooned and insulated from reality, these American “politicians” seem to be blissfully unaware of this impending backlash as they unwittingly plot their own downfall !

    1. Pablo Rivera says

      Remember that the “Humiliation Era” of China started with isolation and the sense that they were above all the rest

  5. tom greg says

    The US is like the alcoholic stalker ex-boyfriend who thinks everything is his business…

  6. john says

    The Orange Buffoon!–what can we expect from a student of Netanyahu, the Israeli child killer and land plunderer–rapist–They are sickest of the sick. Now I really understand what narcissism and ego is all about. And truly, I am happy to see the Europeans take some of their “manhood and womanhood” back.–

  7. DarkEyes says

    We will watch carefully if Mrs Merkel and her dsciple Heiko Maas stay resilient and keep their word.

  8. Rowdy-Yates says

    “European energy policy is decided in Europe, not in the US,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter. We reject external interference,” he said.

    That is so heartwarming to read especially since America has determined Germany’s domestic policies since 1945 including the forced acceptance of the Holocaust myth and the forced reparations of billions of dollars from Germany to Israel based on that myth which under penalty of law cannot even be questioned by Germans.

Reply To Garry Compton
Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Anti-Empire