UPDATE: Russia lashes out at US for Europe’s rejection of NStream

(Rewrites)

MOSCOW, Dec 13 (PRIME) -- The adoption by the European Parliament of a document condemning Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is madness, provoked by the U.S., Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

“Speaking against energy cooperation, its diversification, modernizing energy cooperation is madness for Europe, which needs energy," Zakharova told a news conference.

The European Parliament on Wednesday signed a resolution calling Gazprom’s U.S. $11 billion project political. It said that the pipeline can undermine European energy security and called for its cancellation.

“We see that such declarations have nothing to do with economic, energy demands, this is clearly politics,” Zakharova said.

She added that it was the U.S., which wanted to make E.U.-Russia cooperation difficult, and which “has long been involved in blackmail in the area of energy cooperation.”

However, the Russia-E.U. energy cooperation was never severed despite all problems.

“This is not a statement of the Russian side, this is what the Europeans, the European businessmen note – heat came to their houses each winter without any conditions,” she said. “And who has been spoiling the atmosphere all the time? Unfortunately, these were Ukrainian political figures backed, among others, by their American overseers.”

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said that protecting economic interests of some states using political pressure is unacceptable.

“Ahead of the forthcoming elections to the European Parliament, the European voters should think about whose interests their representatives protect in this European structure,” the State Duma speaker told reporters.

Anton Morozov, member of the State Duma’s committee for foreign affairs, said that by approving the resolution, the European Parliament gave in to the U.S. pressure.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a symbolic resolution opposing Nord Stream 2 on concerns that the project will boost the Kremlin’s control over Europe’s energy supplies.

End