Report: Ukrainian lobbyists worked on US N Stream-2 sanctions

MOSCOW, Nov 30 (PRIME) -- Ukrainian lobbyists took part in the development of U.S. sanctions against Russia’s Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Vadim Glamazdin, advisor to CEO of Ukrainian energy holding Naftogaz Ukrainy, and Alexander Kharchenko, managing director of the Energy Industry Research Center, have been working behind the scenes in Washington for four years trying to stop the Nord Stream-2 from finishing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In 2016, Glamazdin and Kharchenko sent letters to the then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking them to stop the pipeline, but received no response. After that, an acquaintance of Glamazdin in Washington connected him to lobbyist Daniel Vajdich, who worked in the U.S. Senate’s committee for foreign relations. Vajdich helped development of anti-Russian sanctions in 2014 that made ExxonMobil leave a joint project with Russian oil major Rosneft.

Vajdich said that this was the model they used against the Nord Stream-2. In 2018, Glamazdin and Kharchenko attracted analytical centers to the search for the project’s vulnerable points, and found one. One Moscow expert said that Russia had no ships that could lay pipelines of the necessary diameter at necessary depth. Denmark prohibits ships from anchoring in some regions of the Baltic Sea as some old World War II bombs may still remain there, forcing Gazprom to hire Allseas Group SA, as its ship could lay pipelines without anchoring.

After that, Glamazdin and his colleagues decided to have a contact with the U.S. Congress, and Vajdich helped them to contact Senator Ted Cruz, who attracted Senator Jeanne Shaheen to the development of the sanctions. Together, they developed sanctions against the companies that help construction of the pipeline in 2019 with Allseas being their main target.

In December 2019, the U.S. slapped sanctions on the project and demanded companies that lay pipes stop construction immediately. In October, the U.S. expanded the sanctions on all companies that provide services, equipment, or financing for upgrades or re-equipment of ships that work on the project.

Glamazdin told the Wall Street Journal that the sanctions would become “the final nail in the coffin of this project” when they are signed into law.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russian gas giant Gazprom is implementing the project together with Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie.

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