Germany Urges EU To Fight Back Against Russia Sanctions Bill
By RFE/RL
Germany’s economics minister on July 31 urged the European Union to fight back against new sanctions by the United States that could penalize Western companies doing business with Russia.
The new sanctions targeting Russia's energy firms were included in legislation passed overwhelmingly by Congress last week and expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump.
The provisions affecting Europe would allow Trump to impose sanctions on Western businesses working with Russia's Gazprom to build the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline between Russia and Germany through the Baltic Sea.
European leaders say the sanctions will jeopardize their energy security and hurt their economies.
"We consider this as being against international law, plain and simple," German Economics Minister Brigitte Zypries said in an interview published by the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain on July 31.
"The Americans can’t punish German companies because they have business interests in another country,” Zypries said. "Of course, we don't want a trade war. But it is important the European Commission now looks into countermeasures."
Zypries said Berlin had repeatedly asked Washington not to include the provisions affecting European companies in a broader bill targeting Russia with sanctions over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election, aggression in Ukraine, and other matters.
"Unfortunately, that is exactly what they are doing. That means that it is right that the European Commission now considers countermeasures," she said.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned last week that "if our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days" of the provisions taking effect.
The United States has for years opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, saying it will only increase European dependence on Russia for natural gas when Western allies should be diversifying their energy sources away from Russia.
But the sanctions bill represents the first time Washington has attempted to force its opposition to the pipeline on European allies through punitive measures.
Because the new sanctions are coupled with provisions encouraging European countries to consider purchasing liquefied natural gas from the United States rather than continuing to rely on Russia, German leaders say it appears aimed at promoting the United States as much as punishing Russia.
"One is left with the sense that the United States is looking to its own economic interests," Volker Triere, the head of the Germany Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said last week.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned last week that Germany will not tolerate sanctions against European companies involved in the Nord Stream project.
Some German business groups are advocating countersanctions against the United States if Trump decides to impose sanctions on European companies.
Meanwhile, Russia on July 31 retaliated over the sanctions in the bill by ordering the United States to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people.
Late on July 31, the White House said it was mulling a response to Russia's massive expulsion of diplomats.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a news briefing that the administration is looking at possible options and would say something more definitive at a later date.
Vice President Mike Pence, who is visiting Eastern Europe and Georgia this week, said "we hope for better days, for better relations with Russia" eventually, despite Trump's plans to sign the sanctions bill.
With reporting by Reuters, Newsweek, and TASS
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U.S. Set To Deliver Coal To Ukraine For The First Time
The United States is set to begin delivering coal to Ukraine for the first time in a deal Washington framed as a move toward reducing Kyiv's reliance on Russian energy.
Under a deal signed earlier this month between the Ukrainian state-owned energy company Centrenergo and the U.S. firm Xcoal Energy & Resources, some 700,000 metric tons will be shipped to Ukraine by the end of 2017.
"The first shipment of 85,000 [metric tons] is expected in early September," Centrenergo head Oleh Kozemko said at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on July 31, adding that the deliveries should help Ukraine through the winter.
George Kent, the embassy's charge d'affaires, said the deal demonstrates "intensified cooperation" to reduce Kyiv's dependence on Moscow since Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and proceeded to back armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Kent said U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussed the possibility of U.S. coal deliveries to Ukraine during their June 20 meeting at the White House.
Ukraine has been struggling to produce coal since the conflict erupted in April 2014 because Russia-backed separatist forces control much of its coal-rich region.
Poroshenko's government in March suspended all cargo traffic with areas held by the separatists and has been seeking to secure sufficient fuel reserves needed to keep power plants operating.
"The United States can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will. U.S. coal will be a secure and reliable energy source for Centrenergo and its electricity customers," U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a July 31 statement.
With reporting by AFP