Polish Foreign Minister: After completing Nord Stream 2 Russia will continue war in Ukraine
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warns that once the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has been built, nothing will hold Russia back from further aggression in Ukraine. He made a statement to this effect during the FOTAR conference in Hamburg, the Polish Press Agency reports.
If the Ukrainian gas transmission system is no longer needed once the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has been built, Morawiecki asks, “what will stop Vladimir Putin from going to Kyiv?”
“You will be surprised by who I am going to quote, but Lenin once said that the capitalists are so greedy that they will sell us the rope with which we will hang them,” the Polish Prime Minister said.
He explained that Europeans are paying Russia for gas, money which Russia in turn puts into its army, and then Europe has to ask the US for protection.
“I know the stance of the German government, that this is a business project. However, east of the Oder, no one believes this,” he remarked.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is intended to span the Baltic Sea and connect the Russian supplier to consumers in Europe. It will be more than 1,200 km long, with a throughput capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year. The project’s cost is estimated at nearly €10 billion. The consortium of project participants includes Gazprom, Engie, OMV, Shell, BASF and Uniper.
Nord Stream 2 has received complete authorization for construction and use in Germany, Finland and Sweden. In August, British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt urged the EU to join the sanctions on Russia and to block the Nord Stream 2 project, which he said “undermines EU energy policy”. In his opinion, it would be cheaper to invest in upgrading the Ukrainian gas transmission system.