Nord Stream 2

The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss an EU compromise for Nord Stream 2 where EU member states, the EU Parliament, and its Commission will give the bloc more oversight on gas pipelines, with one caveat…the Nord Stream 2 project with Russia will not be threatened by the new regulations in the agreement.
Macron pushed hard to have the new regulations include (and derail) Nord Stream 2, an action which annoyed Angela Merkel, who eventually got her way and delivered another blow to Macron’s failing French presidency.

Authored by Finian Cunningham via The Strategic Culture Foundation:

RT reports that a U.S. ambassador has reportedly threatened to punish German contributors involved in the multinational Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, and has tried to fan the ‘Russia scare’ to make his point.

The calls to cancel the controversial planned pipeline Nord Stream 2 were coming from the US, Ukraine, and various EU member states, but it all fell on deaf ears. Nord Stream 2 is a reality, and no amount of US LNG dreaming appears to be changing this fact.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met for a summit outside Berlin last weekend. Here’s a recap of the event from Strategic Culture…

US Republican Senators John Barrasso and Cory Gardner have introduced a bill to enforce US economic sanctions on companies involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. While sanctions already exist relative to other Russian energy project, this bill aims to specifically target the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in a plan to kill it, dead in the Baltic.

The Trump administration has announced that it is prepared to launch sanctions against Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government in Ankara, Turkey if it doesn’t release a preacher who was arrested for inciting sedition against the Turkish government during the time of an attempted coup in 2016.

As China transitions from coal energy to liquefied natural gas, it is making its way towards becoming the largest import market for natural gas in the world. LNG is, of course, considerably more environmentally friendly than coal. China is importing Russian LNG from the Arctic via shipments from above the Arctic Circle, which travel the Northern Sea Route, which is available for open shipping use during the summer months.

While at the BRICS summit currently ongoing in Johannesburg, South Africa, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a proposal to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for cooperation between Russia and South Africa on the development and expansion of nuclear power in the region. Ramaphosa, however, was hesitant to consider the deal over concerns about his government’s budget, believing that South Africa lacks the liquidity to adequately participate in such an endeavour.

European leaders are sticking to their guns on the anti-Russia bandwagon approach as the the European Council elected to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months, with the logic being that the EU still insists that Russia is responsible for the conflicts in the Ukraine.
Deutsche Welle reports: