The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline served the Russian hegemony over Europe and should be dismantled, Polish President Andrzej Duda has claimed.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Duda insisted the pipeline will result in the “monopolization of the European gas market by Russia,” and declared it “deadly for Europe.”
“We still believe that Nord Stream 2 should not only be blocked, but simply dismantled, because it is harming the entire European Union,” the Polish president added.
Duda reminded viewers that Poland was fighting against joint German and Russian investments in Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, as their construction was of a “clear political nature, aiming to bypass the territories of Poland, the Baltic States and Ukraine, and opening up a possibility of gas blackmail against those Eastern European states.
“We were constantly protesting against it, but unfortunately those investments were realized. The German authorities were constantly forcing those projects,” stated the president.
“Russia is blackmailing not only Germany, now in fact, Russia is blackmailing the entire Europe,” he added.
The construction of Nord Stream 2 was finished in September 2021 but the German Federal Network Agency temporarily suspended the issuing of the final permit for the pipeline’s launch due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 was intended to transport gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine.
In late February, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the German Ministry of Economy will once more look into the process of granting the concession to Gazprom, and it will carry out a “new safety assessment of the deliveries.”
“The situation has changed substantially,” stated Scholz.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Scholz claimed that Nord Stream 2 was a business project which had nothing to do with politics.
