"Financial destruction": Three US senators threaten the port of Mukran

The components for the Nordstream natural gas pipeline are stored in the port of Mukran near Sassnitz on the island of Rügen. In their fight against the project, three Republican senators are now threatening port management with devastating sanctions. The conflict reaches Chancellor Merkel's constituency.

Three US Congress members have allegedly threatened the management of Fährhafen Sassnitz GmbH on Rügen with economic destruction if the company should continue to support the construction of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. "If you continued to provide goods, services, and support for the Nord Stream 2 project, you would destroy your company's future financial survival," the letter said, the Handelsblatt reported.

The port of Mukran near Sassnitz in Chancellor Angela Merkel's constituency serves as a tube storage facility for the pipeline route of 160 kilometers still to be built. In addition, two Russian lay ships moored there. Their supply "will definitely become sanctionable when one of the two ships submerges a pipe for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline," wrote the three senators.

"The sanctions are compulsory and there is no margin of discretion in their imposition," quoted the "Welt" from the three-page letter from US Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Ron Johnson. The threatened sanctions are far-reaching. "Board members, directors, and shareholders of Fährhafen Sassnitz GmbH are prohibited from entering the United States, and any property or portion of property that is within our area of ​​responsibility is frozen," it said.

Hundreds of pipeline elements are stored in Mukran.

(Photo: imago images / Jens Koehler)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in mid-July that the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline, which is to transport gas from Russia to Germany, will now fall under a law that allows punitive measures against companies that do business with Russia or countries such as Iran and North Korea do. The Federal Government then declared that it rejected extraterritorial sanctions, since these were "contrary to international law".

Nord Stream 2 is supposed to transport gas from Russia to Germany and is particularly controversial in Eastern Europe. Above all, there are fears that alternative pipelines and traditional transit countries such as Ukraine will weaken. The project is also a thorn in the side of the USA. The US government argues that Europe is becoming energy-dependent on Russia.

The port of Mukran was built in the 1980s. From 1986 to 1989 there was a regular ferry connection to Kleipeda in the former Soviet Union. In addition to goods, massive amounts of people and material from the Red Army were shipped there. After the reunification of Mukran there were more ferry connections. In the past few years, the facilities have been massively expanded because, in addition to the construction of Nordstream, a number of offshore facilities have also been built from there.