DC's Daily Stack: LNG Anyone?
US Mountain Time (MDT) Afternoon Edition: Year 1, Vol 3.
This is the only story I will be covering. On Friday, Nordstream 2 agreed to a debt restructuring. Owen Gregorian summarized on Twitter a Politico article:
The White House is debating whether to lift sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and potentially other Russian assets in Europe as part of discussions on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, five people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO. Lifting the sanctions currently in place on one of Russia’s main pipelines connecting its natural gas fields to western Europe would be a sharp reversal in the U.S. policy first put in place during President Donald Trump’s first term.
President Joe Biden waived those sanctions early in his term, but reimposed them after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Restarting Nord Stream 2 could provide a financial windfall to Moscow, but only if the EU agreed to accept buying Russian gas via the pipeline again — a prospect that seems unlikely given the EU’s campaign to wean itself off Russian energy imports. But lifting the sanctions would amount to a diplomatic coup for Russia and a major concession from Trump.
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff has been the main proponent of lifting sanctions, people familiar with the talks told POLITICO. Witkoff, who has said he has developed a friendship with Putin in his role as Trump’s envoy to Moscow, has directed his team to draw up a list of all of the energy sanctions that the United States has placed on Russia as part of the effort, two people familiar with the matter said. In a joint statement issued by the White House, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff denied the discussions about easing sanctions had taken place. “This is false. Neither of us have had any conversations about lifting sanctions on Russia as part of a peace deal with Ukraine,” their statement said. “This is just totally fictitious and irresponsible reporting from Politico, a fifth-rate publication. If they have an ounce of journalistic integrity they will fully retract this piece of fiction.”
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Multiple outsiders are lobbying the administration to lift the sanctions, two of the people said. One of the wooers is Stephen Lynch, a Miami-based head of global private investment firm Monte Valley Partners.
The Lynch Pin to Europe: Energy & Intrigues
Patience is a virtue, I am told. The ability to wait out opponents, plan accordingly, and then strike with a deal that shocks and awes, yet solves a host of interconnected problems. Such wins come from great diplomacy: a rarity in the current day as most can’t see much further than irrational blind hatred and festering old harms that no one can ever sol…
Prior Day Daily:
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