A briefing between the State Department and congressional staff on Vladimir Putin’s Russia-Germany gas pipeline was tense this week, with Biden officials averting questions about why they hadn’t gone faster and more aggressively with sanctions against stop its completion.
- The Biden officials also denied that he was negotiating with the Germans about a possible ancillary agreement to complete the pipeline.
Why it matters: As we reported earlier this week, some allies are concerned that Biden is shaky in Putin’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and the battle is a major test of whether the new president’s harsh rhetoric against Russia will be matched by action.
- Russian opponents, including top officials in the Ukrainian and Polish governments, are concerned that Biden will not want to thwart Angela Merkel and incur serious costs on the Germans.
- And members of Congress – Republicans and Democrats alike – were impressed by a report recently sent to Congress by the Biden State Department, targeting just one Russian ship for sanctions. The Trump administration had already sanctioned that ship, the Fortuna.
Behind the scenes: The first call between senior State Department officials and Republican and Democratic House and Senate national security officials took place Tuesday.
- Tuesday’s call was classified and made from a secure room. One source of the call and two other sources briefed on that conversation said the question focused on why the Biden government had not targeted a greater number of ships for sanctions – since, the aides argued, that maritime tracking clearly some additional ships are working on the pipeline.
- The call lasted about half an hour until the line suddenly dropped dead from the State Department end. While some Republicans on the line believed they had been hanged, the State Department said this was a technical problem.
Then, on Thursdays at 2pm, State Department officials gathered for a second briefing meeting, this time unclassified, with senior staff from the offices of the House and Senate.
- This call was more controversial, according to three sources that took part. Growing hostility came from Republican officials who were unhappy with the responses. The Biden officials seemed to be trying to politely avoid conflict.
At one point during the call, a Republican Senate employee asked Biden officials why they had not sanctioned Nord Stream 2 AG – the company responsible for laying the pipeline.
- State Department officials replied that they were not going to talk about specific entities and that they were still investigating the facts and gathering the evidence.
“We’re talking about the company that owns Nord Stream 2,” the Republican official said sharply, according to the three sources accompanying the call. “I am now on their webpage and they identify themselves as the company responsible for the planning, construction and operation of the pipeline.”
- “You found that there were sanctions in connection with the pipeline,” the official continued. “What is the type of information you would need to confirm for yourself that the company running the operation you just approved is engaged in sanctionable activities?”
State Department officials disputed that the general tone of the call was hostile, arguing that they had later heard of convention officials describing the briefing as helpful.
- They argued that it could take a long time to determine which entities are punishable and reiterated that Biden’s administration plans to use all available tools to halt the pipeline’s completion.
During the conversation, Molly Montgomery, the deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, denied that the US is negotiating a possible side agreement with Germany to allow the pipeline to continue.
- Reuters reported Friday, citing a German government spokeswoman, that there is “an exchange between the US government and Germany about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring Russian gas to Europe.” The report did not contain any further details.
- Foreign ministry officials argued that the word “exchange” should not be understood as a negotiation and that the Biden government had expressed concern about the pipeline to the Germans during normal diplomatic talks.
A senior assistant to the Senate on the call also defended the Biden government against allegations of slow and gentle movement, saying there was bipartisan opposition to the pipeline, but the government “must ensure that any sanction has a weight of evidence that will stand up in court.”
- “Time is short and they are under fire,” said the assistant, “but I think they are trying to avoid the clown-car approach by the last government that did things like sanctions against Russian company Rusal, but back it up. had to run after they almost collapsed the world aluminum market. “
- “Measuring twice to cut once is always a healthy policy,” added the assistant, “especially when there is a sense of urgency to get this right.”
- Yes but: The Trump administration only removed Rusal from the sanctions list after a blacklisted oligarch and Putin’s friend, Oleg Deripaska, made a pledge to divest his majority stake in the company.
GOP conference staff asked the Biden officials to commit to updating the report they had already provided to Congress with new entities that should be sanctioned, but State Department officials have made no commitment.
- One of the Biden officials told congressional staffers that if they had more information about entities involved in the pipeline, they should say what it is. Earlier this month, two-member members of the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee sent a letter to State Secretary Antony Blinken in which they named these suspicious ships.
- In the recently passed bill, Congress has mandated the government to approve a wide variety of pipeline activities.
The big picture: Pipeline construction halted during the Trump administration after Congress imposed sanctions in a 2019 bill and top Trump officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, issued aggressive threats.
- But the Russians resumed major construction on Nord Stream 2 after Biden took office.
It comes down to: The pipeline is more than 90% complete and could be ready by summer without major intervention to stop it.