Spox: Efforts to prevent building of NStream-2 violate trade rules

MOSCOW, Aug 20 (PRIME) -- Attempts to undermine the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project contradict trade norms and rules which is impossible to conceal, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

On August 18, еhe Wall Street Journal reported citing U.S. officials that a package of fresh sanctions that can be used to try to stop completion of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline is already in its advanced stages.

“There is no doubt that the attempts to oppose a plainly commercial project absolutely contradict and strongly violate all trade norms and rules including the rules of the World Trade Organization. It is nothing else and there can be no motivation to conceal it,” Peskov said.

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 will implement the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie.

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