Kremlin says new gas pipeline to Germany will help stability

While in Brussels for a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit on Wednesday, Trump criticised Berlin for doing business with Russia while North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was trying to protect Europe from potential Russian aggression.

And we stressed our well-known concerns about Nord Stream 2, Sefcovic said at a press conference on Thursday after the EU-U.S. Energy Council held in Brussels.

Nord Stream II "is an example of European countries supplying funds to Russian Federation, which can be used against the security of Poland", Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said yesterday.

"Germany is captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia", Trump said, referring to Berlin's deal for the gas pipeline.

"I have to say, I think it's very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where you're supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia".

He also said that the project will make Germany dependent on Russian Federation.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is scheduled to be put into operation in late 2019.

"It will be very beneficial for Ukraine".

Pointing to conflict between Russian Federation and Georgia a decade ago, which threatened the 1,099-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Healy Baumgardner, a global fossil fuel adviser and the former press secretary for the Energy Department under President George W. Bush, told UPI it's naïve to try to decouple energy from political issues.

"They will use that to weaken the European Union, to divide the European allies", Shevchenko said in an interview.

The previous Barack Obama administration nonetheless pointed out the disconnect from a Germany that could sign on to EU-US sanctions against Russian Federation over Ukraine and pursue energy deals with Moscow. "So Canada is clear with our partners about the concerns we have with Nord Stream".

Freeland also went out of her way not to overstate the newfound simpatico with the Trump administration on this one issue, saying Canada has imposed sanctions on Russian Federation "in close collaboration with our European and USA allies".