The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction is 99% complete, the operating company said on Wednesday. The Russian-led project is expected to be finished on August 23. On the same day (in 1939), the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, known as the fourth partition of Poland.
Deutsche Welle announced that despite bad weather conditions, the construction of Nord Stream 2 will end on August 23.
There are opinions that this is another blow towards Poland and the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). The gas pipeline is routed in such a way as to effectively bypass these countries, limit their access to gas and limit their influence on Europe’s energy policy.
It was on August 23, 1939, that the Third Reich and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed a non-aggression pact and decided on the spheres of influence and the governance of the independence of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Romania. The document is commonly known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (signed by the foreign ministers of both countries: Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov).
It was then that the Russians gave the Germans full consent to the attack on Poland and reserved the right to participate in the partition of the territory of the Republic of Poland.
Nord Stream 2 is a two-lane pipeline from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The construction of the Russian-German pipeline is opposed by Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states. Earlier, the United States was also against it, but the Joe Biden administration finally withdrew from the idea of imposing sanctions on this matter. Critics of Nord Stream 2 argue, that the project will increase Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and extend the Kremlin’s influence on European politics.