Germany approves resuming Russia gas pipeline work

German authorities on Friday gave immediate permission for work to resume on a subsea pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia.

decision by Federal Maritime and Hydrographic ncy can be appealed, meaning re could be ar halt to construction on rd Stream 2 project, which has drawn major criticism from United States, some or European countries and environmental groups.

U.S. government has argued that Baltic Sea pipeline would make Europe more dependent on Russian gas and hurt European energy security. Kremlin has responded by accusing Washington of trying to promote its own liquefied natural gas sales.

Russian state-controlled natural gas company, Gazprom, has positioned a ship to resume work on multibillion pipeline, which was suspended after a Swiss firm pulled its vessels out of project amid threats of U.S. sanctions. Because Russian ship is of a different than Swiss vessels, Germany h to issue fresh authorization.

Gazprom says 6% of pipeline, or about 150 kilometers (93 miles), still needs to be completed.

(Im Credit: AP)