Why Europe Is Furious Over Congress’s Russia Sanctions

What is the point of the U.S.’s latest sanctions on Russia? A) To contain Vladimir Putin? B) To contain Donald Trump? Or C) To lever Russian natural gas out of Europe’s energy market in order to let U.S. gas in? Congress may say A (and think B), but Europeans are steaming mad about C.

The bill enables (but doesn’t oblige) Trump to throttle Russia’s oil and gas export pipelines, the arteries that carry its economy’s lifeblood. If that happened, U.S. companies would be the biggest beneficiaries. Right now, liquefied natural gas exported from Louisiana can’t compete with Russia on price, but that could change if the sanctions threat makes it too risky to ship Russian product.

The US sanctions against Russia could boost prices of natural gas for Germany and the EU. Photo, Trump: Sean Gallup—Getty Images; Merkel: Florian Gaertner—Photothek via Getty Images; Putin: Mikhail Svetlov—Getty Images 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government have blasted the plans, as have the European companies building the so-called Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, under the Baltic Sea. Rem Korteweg, an analyst with think tank Clingendael, says Nord Stream should be stopped anyway, as it increases EU dependency on Russia, which already satisfies some 30% of EU gas needs. But Germany in particular seems unlikely to forgive Trump for acting in Europe’s best interests—however unintentionally.

fortune.com