ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — The United States has the most pragmatic position on the Nord Stream 2 project, as Washington's goal is to bury the project through sanctions and to promote its own suppliers, replacing Russia on the European gas market, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday.
"The most pragmatic is the position of the United States, which wants to bury this project with all sorts of legal decisions, instruments, sanctions, having an ambiguous impact on the European Union," Medvedev said following talks with his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila.
The prime minister added that the pipeline project was commercial and should not be politicized, Finland had a constructive stance on this issue.
"I would like to say that our partners from Finland have a very constructive stance on the Nord Stream 2 project. The constructiveness of this position is treating this project like a normal commercial project … This is what is needed for this project to come to fruition – not politicization of the project itself, the idea itself, but treating it like a commercial project, a business project," Medvedev told reporters after meeting his Finnish counterpart.
Medvedev stressed that Moscow considered "unacceptable" a demand by the European Commission that an additional agreement on the Nord Stream 2, involving special mandate approved by the EU Council, must be signed in order to move ahead with the project.