U.S.-funded groups in Europe lobby to kill Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline

The landfall facilities of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, northern Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Nord Stream 2 is a 1,230-kilometer-long (764-mile-long) natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, running from Russia to Germany's Baltic coast. When it becomes operational, the profits of U.S. multinational oil and gas corporations will be threatened. | Michael Sohn / AP

Washington-backed organizations describing themselves as charities are leading the charge for the scrapping of Russia and Germany’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and increased sanctions against Moscow.

In an email, International Renaissance Foundation executive director Oleksandr Sushko called on Western countries to act against “Russian aggression” and warned of a European security crisis.

He described Ukraine as “Europe’s democratic frontier,” ignoring the fact that democracy was usurped in the country in 2014 when the European Union backed a coup against the government of elected President Viktor Yanukovich and that Kiev continues to suppress political critics, including by a ban on the Communist Party standing in elections and through media censorship.

Sushko claimed that Russia was manufacturing the crisis to assert control over Europe, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling on Western media to tone down the hysteria over an allegedly imminent invasion, accusing them of creating panic in the country.

“Europe and the international community must support Ukraine against Russian neo-Soviet authoritarian imperialism,” he said. “The West can support Ukrainian freedom by withholding regulatory approval for Nord Stream 2 and must strengthen efforts to track Russian dirty money and immediately freeze the assets of the regime.”

A far from an independent commentator, Sushko previously worked as research director for the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, a political action committee based in Ukraine that lobbies for Kiev’s membership in NATO and the EU.

His former employer is funded by Western donations, including from USAid, and lists NATO and the shady National Endowment for Democracy as its partners.

The International Renaissance Foundation was founded in 1990 and is described as “an integral part” of George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. It has spent more than $100 million on funding NGOs, civil society groups, and media organizations in Ukraine.

One of the main priorities of the foundation is financially supporting projects that encourage European integration. Along with the National Endowment for Democracy, it funds the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre, which aims to control the media narrative on the country and collaborates with the U.S. embassy there.

Kiev has been accused by the Communist Party of Ukraine of waging an “information genocide” by shutting down opposition news channels. Last week, the official YouTube accounts of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics were closed without warning, triggering accusations of censorship.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Germany and Russia, which was completed in September last year, is opposed by Washington, which has threatened to block it from operating altogether.

U.S. companies aiming to supply liquefied natural gas to Europe are believed to be among the main beneficiaries should the project collapse.

Morning Star

For more background on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, read: \

> Pipeline ploy: How U.S. natural gas interests are fueling the Ukraine crisis

---

CONTRIBUTOR

Steve Sweeney

Steve Sweeney writes for Morning Star, the socialist daily newspaper published in Great Britain. He is also a People's Assembly National Committee member, patron of the Peace in Kurdistan campaign, and a proud trade unionist. Steve Sweeney escribe para Morning Star, el diario socialista publicado en Gran Bretaña. También es miembro del Comité Nacional de la Asamblea Popular, patrocinador de la campaña Paz en Kurdistán y un orgulloso sindicalista.