The Political Dimension of the Nord Stream – 2 Project

Abstract

The research featured the political role of the Nord Stream 2 project in Russian foreign policy and in building constructive relations with Russia's partners in the European Union. The paper describes the strategy, tactics, forms, and methods involved in the cross-border pipeline project implemented by Russia and its foreign partners. The focus is on the political relations between the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian state-owned corporations, foreign governments, and foreign multinational corporations, i.e. the negotiations within the international consortium. The research objective was to identify the role of cross-border pipeline projects in Russian foreign policy in Europe. The methodological basis included system and comparative-political approaches, as well as the methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction. The methods of political comparativistics revealed how the competing parties were able to affect the negotiations and implementation of Nord Stream 2. The method of system analysis made it possible to examine the interactions between the state structures and the oil and gas companies. The authors identified the conflict directions between the supporters and the opponents of the project, as well as between the Russian Federation and the United States of America. The paper describes the political tools that promote the interests of the project in conditions of acute rivalry in the energy area. The Russian Federation and Gazprom managed to bring the project to its final stage. However, the success would have been impossible without the help of their European partners.