"Today, I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers. These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate," Biden wrote in a statement.
"According to the information at my disposal, Putin is moving additional forces and tanks into the occupied Donbas territories," Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Wednesday."By any definition, that's a crossing of a sovereign territory into a neighboring country."
But now that Germany, after intensive diplomacy with the US, has agreed to halt the pipeline's certification indefinitely, the US feels freer to allow the congressionally-mandated sanctions to move forward. Essentially, the administration wanted Germany to decide on its own to halt the pipeline before moving forward with more punishing sanctions on the project, the official explained.
Singh, speaking on CNN, did not specify timing. But he pointed to the types of sanctions the US might pursue, including export controls"at any moment."