Five people familiar with the matter said on Oct. 8 that US envoy Jared Kushner and Dmitriev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, have held talks on bringing US investors into the Nord Stream gas pipeline project. Before the Ukraine war broke out, Nord Stream had been delivering gas to Germany.
According to reports, Kushner met Dmitriev in Moscow and New York in recent weeks to discuss allowing US investors to profit from energy supplies to Europe after the war. Last month, Dmitriev also discussed potential US-Russia energy cooperation projects with representatives of the US Energy Department and Treasury.
A White House official said any deal would have to be negotiated by Russia with the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Treasury, and must benefit US taxpayers and companies, adding that there have been no recent discussions about the Nord Stream project.
However, restarting Nord Stream faces many obstacles. The pipeline is under US and EU sanctions, and any restart operation would be illegal. Even if Trump waives US sanctions, Democrats controlling Congress in next month's midterm elections would make easing them more difficult. A US official said that given the obstacles, a deal is unlikely in the medium term.
A spokesperson for Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy stressed that Nord Stream is under sanctions, Germany has found alternative solutions, and it has no intention of approving a restart. German lawmaker Kellner criticized it as very likely a dirty deal that will make Europe pay a heavy price.
Before the war, more than half of Germany's gas was imported from Russia via the two Nord Stream pipelines. The pipelines were destroyed in underwater explosions in September 2022. Nord Stream AG is 51% owned by Gazprom, with another 31% held by two German entities.
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