Photo from UNIAN
The European Union should block the construction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline in order not to allow the Kremlin to gain additional levers of economic and geopolitical influence on Germany, Poland and Slovakia, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev said in an interview with Reuters published on Sunday, January 29.
"We call upon our European partners to look one step ahead, [to see] what will happen when the North Stream-2 is launched," he told Reuters.
Kobolev stressed that the launch of the underwater gas pipeline with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters will lead to an equivalent drop in the volume of natural gas transit through Ukraine and Poland.
Read alsoForbes: Russia's Gazprom starts off 2017 lobbying for new Baltic Sea pipeline"I don’t think it has to do anything with the diversification of supplies. This would mean Gazprom’s dominance in this part of Europe," he said.
Kobolev urged the EU states to be cautious in their relations with the Russian Federation and Russian companies. He also assured that Ukraine remained one of the most consistent opponents of the Nord Stream-2 project.