Washington’s Nord Stream Tollbooth Is Still a Sketch

Viddy the peace dividend, droogies: somebody’s already measuring it for a cash drawer.

Reuters reports that Jared Kushner and Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev discussed bringing an unnamed U.S. investor into Nord Stream. The attraction would be income from future energy flows to Europe. No completed sale or approved restart is established.^[1]

Keep the small print in your gulliver. A White House official told Reuters there had been no recent Nord Stream discussions and said any agreement would require Russia to negotiate with the U.S. development-finance agency DFC and Treasury. Another U.S. official called a deal unlikely in the medium term. Germany’s ministry said reopening would require government approval and wasn’t wanted.^[1]

The EU’s July 18, 2025 measures imposed a full transaction ban on Nord Stream 1 and 2, covering goods and services and blocking completion, maintenance, operation and future use. An American investor doesn’t wave that away.^[2]

Our reading: the interesting machinery here is the proposed tollbooth. The pipeline remains behind legal and political locks; the sales pitch has apparently learned to swim.