Claims by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that he “killed” the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline were likely made in the heat of an election race, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. The gas inter-connector was badly damaged by a series of explosions in September 2022.
Peskov was referring to remarks Trump made during a live interview with conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson earlier in the day.
“Nobody would kill it but me. I stopped it. The thing was half-built, dead,” Trump declared.
Peskov recalled that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline had actually completed, and that one line of the conduit, which physically consists of two pipes, remains operational. He said that Gazprom is ready to immediately restart supplies if Germany agrees to buy Russian gas.
“One line of Nord Stream 2 is intact and is ready for launch any time, as President Putin earlier said. Therefore, it is very difficult to guess what Mr. Trump meant,” Peskov told reporters.
“Probably, in the heat of this election race, we are hearing the statements that you’ve mentioned,” he added.
Nord Stream 2 was intended to increase Russian gas supplies to the EU. The pipeline had a potential capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.
At a cost of $11 billion, the project was initiated in response to requests by the German government headed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was fully completed and ready for launch in 2021, pending certification by Germany and the EU.
The Trump administration was especially critical of the project and targeted it with sanctions in 2019. The US, eager to sell the EU more liquefied natural gas, said at the time that Nord Stream 2 would increase Russia’s economic leverage over the bloc.
Some of the restrictions were later removed by US President Joe Biden, who argued they were “counterproductive for European relations.”
In February 2022, days before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended certification of the pipeline.
In September that year, the crucial energy route was ruptured by underwater explosions in an apparent act of sabotage.