US senators set to introduce bill against Nord Stream 2

Two U.S. senators intend to introduce a bill targeting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which plans to transport Russian natural gas to Germany, U.S. media outlets reported Tuesday.

Two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Texas Republican Ted Cruz and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, drafted the measure to put pressure on Russia, the media reports said.

The draft version of the bill would target the pipelaying vessels and would deny U.S. visas to managers from companies linked to those vessels.

It also would halt transactions in U.S.-based property or interests belonging to those individuals and would punish entities that provide insurance to the project.

Earlier, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia Poland, Denmark and Ukraine expressed their opposition to the project, arguing that it would increase the EU's dependency on Russian gas while urging that Europe instead focus on diversifying its energy resources.

U.S. President Donald Trump also has been against the project, calling for Europe to diversify its energy supply sources and buy liquefied natural gas from the U.S. rather than Russian natural gas.

The Nord Stream 2 project is planned to have a 55 billion cubic meter capacity, which will continue from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea.