Senate Votes Against Nord Stream Sanctions

The Senate voted 55 to 44 against a proposal for a new round of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas project led by Russia's Gazprom. According to opponents in the U.S. Congress, the project will deepen Europe's dependence on Russian gas while giving Moscow the opportunity to use gas supplies as a weapon against Europe. "Russia has nakedly and unequivocally used energy as energy blackmail," Senator Ted Cruz, author of the measure, said yesterday on the Senate floor, as quoted by Bloomberg. And Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, had…