Top Swedish Diplomat Tells Russian Pranksters EU Will Always Be Split on Nord Stream 2

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - Ann Linde, the Swedish foreign minister and chairwoman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said during her phone call with Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov that there will be no sanctions against Nord Stream 2 because the bloc will always be split on the issue.

The pranksters introduced themselves as the spouse of Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny, Yulia, and his ally Leonid Volkov. They published video of the conversation on their YouTube channel on Thursday.

"Now, we will never ever have unified position to stop Nord Stream 2 at this point. And that means that it will really show that EU, it’s split, and that will weaken EU and strengthen Russia… And if we bring up the Nord Stream 2, there will never ever be majority because the sanction will be against EU companies," Linde said.

Although most Swedish lawmakers want to impose sanctions on the project, they will only be against European companies building the pipeline, the minister specified.

If the project had been stopped earlier, this would have been another issue, Linde added.

The Nord Stream 2 project entails the construction of a 745-mile-long offshore twin pipeline, which will supply up to 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas per year from Russia to Germany.