[7] In October 2022, Russia confirmed that Pipe B of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline escaped destruction, and offered to resume gas supply to Europe (which was promptly declined by Berlin).

[17][18] In January 2015, Gazprom announced that the expansion project had been put on hold since the existing lines were running at only half capacity due to EU sanctions on Russia over the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

[3][22] In January 2019, the US ambassador in Germany, Richard Grenell, sent letters to companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2 urging them to stop working on the project and threatening them with the possibility of sanctions.

[23] In December 2019, the Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson also urged Allseas owner Edward Heerema to suspend the works on the pipeline, warning him that the United States would otherwise impose sanctions.

[25] In December 2019, Allseas announced that the company had suspended its Nord Stream 2 pipelaying activities, anticipating enactment of the US National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which contained sanctions.

[39][40] On 9 December 2021, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on Germany's newly appointed Chancellor Olaf Scholz to oppose the start-up of Nord Stream 2 and not to give in to pressure from Russia.

"[41] Scholz suspended certification of Nord Stream 2 on 22 February 2022 in consequence of Russia's recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics and the deployment of troops in territory held by the DPR and LPR.

[58] Nord Stream 2 starts at the Slavyanskaya compressor station near Ust-Luga port, located 2.8 km (1.7 mi) south-east of the village of Bolshoye Kuzyomkino (Narvusi) in the Kingiseppsky District of the Leningrad Oblast, in the historical Ingria close to the Estonian border.

"[72] They also said: "To threaten companies from Germany, Austria and other European states with penalties on the US market if they participate in natural gas projects such as Nord Stream 2 with Russia or finance them introduces a completely new and very negative quality into European-American relations.

"[77] In January 2019, the US ambassador in Germany, Richard Grenell, sent letters to companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2 urging them to stop working on the project and threatening with the possibility of sanctions.

[78] In December 2019, the US Congress approved sanctions on companies and governments working on the pipeline, to which German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas responded, urging the US not to meddle in European energy policy.

[79] Following the US Senate's vote to override the Trump administration's veto of the defense bill containing punitive measures on the pipeline, the US State Department alerted companies of sanctions risk they face, urging them to pull out from the project.

[94] In protest against the Biden administration's policies, senator Ted Cruz held up dozens of diplomatic nominations, telling CNN "I look forward to lifting the holds just as soon as they impose the sanctions on Nord Stream 2 that are required by federal law.

"[95][96] According to PolitiFact, this positive signal to Germany and Russia was accompanied by sanctions on other areas of Russian industry as part of a changing strategy to reopen negotiations over Ukraine.

[105] The deal was immediately opposed by Ukraine and Poland and US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with Foreign Policy reporting that it had become a "lightning rod issue" and that "Biden's post-Trump-era honeymoon period with some Eastern European allies has come to a screeching halt.

"[106] Deutsche Welle reported that the deal promoted "strong condemnation" from Poland, with government spokesman Piotr Müller saying "We have emphasized from the very beginning that Nord Stream 2 is a geopolitical project that destabilizes the political situation in central and eastern Europe.

Following reports of Russian troops massing near the border with Ukraine and fears of an invasion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions on 23 November, targeting eight people and 17 vessels as "pursuant to PEESA in connection with Nord Stream 2".

[114] The wider set of sanctions in Senate bill 3488, "Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022"[118] would impose significant compliance challenges for companies doing business in Russia, not just Nord Stream and its European and Russian backers.

[121] Earlier in the month, Menendez and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had been personally assured during a visit by German Chancellor Scholz that if Russia invaded, Nord Stream 2 would be halted.

[122] In late October 2021, the approval of the pipeline was still in process as permits were expected from the German regulatory Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) and finally from the European Commission later that year.

[129] In February 2022, Menendez and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had been personally assured during a visit by German Chancellor Scholz that if Russia invaded, Nord Stream 2 would be halted.

[135][136] Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia wrote on online social media service Twitter: "welcome to the new world where Europeans will soon have to pay 2,000 euros per thousand cubic metres!"

The US and European nations such as Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania opposed Nord Stream 2 on the grounds that it increased dependence on Russian energy and posed a security threat to the EU.

[153] Sberbank's investment research division in 2018 voiced concerns from Russian stakeholders' perspective, specifically that the project's goals are exclusively political:[154] Gazprom's decisions make perfect sense if the company is assumed to be run for the benefit of its contractors, not for commercial profit.

"[72] They also said: "to threaten companies from Germany, Austria and other European states with penalties on the U.S. market if they participate in natural gas projects such as Nord Stream 2 with Russia or finance them introduces a completely new and very negative quality into European-American relations.

In January 2021, state premier Manuela Schwesig set up the Climate and Environmental Protection Foundation of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern  [de ] to "acquire, manage, own, provide or let land, tools and machines to help the completion" of the pipeline.

[166] After avoiding the pipeline issue at a press conference at the White House on 7 February, Scholz responded to repeated questions from reporters saying the US and Germany were "absolutely united", while Biden went further and said that the Nord Stream 2 project would end if Russia invaded Ukraine.

[177] Unusually, environmental impact assessments are being explicitly skipped according to Robert Habeck, a Green party politician and the economic affairs minister in the current German government, saying "ensuring Germany was no longer blackmailable by Putin had to take priority.

[181][182] In 2024 German FAZ published results of investigation indicating that the certification for Nord Stream 2 construction was issued in conflict on interest and involving political pressure and various personal-business connections, and it likely should have never been granted.

[193] In February 2023, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article based on a single unnamed source alleging the attack was carried out utilizing American and Norwegian assets.