U.S. Senator Jim Risch, a ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and sanctions legislation co-author, said this week’s agreement “was negotiated without the participation and consent of key allies like Ukraine and Poland,

and does not guarantee a single concrete consequence if Russia uses Nord Stream 2 as the geopolitical weapon it is.” In response, the Undersecretary of Statem Victoria Nulandm told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday: “Germany will take actions at the national level and press for effective measures at the European level, including sanctions, to limit Russian export capabilities in the energy sector.”