MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/: The Kremlin hopes that the sanctions against Nord Stream 2 will not impede successful completion of this gas pipeline project, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Monday.
"The situation is being analyzed. We proceed from the understanding that such sanctions are unacceptable to us," he said. "We do hope, of course, that such steps will not impede successful implementation of this important project."
Peskov said Moscow would not leave these sanctions without retaliation.
"In any case, such steps [sanctions] will not remain without retaliation," he said. "How this will be done and when is rather a matter of Russia’s national interests. When it suits the national interests best."
Peskov said that it was too early to say when the construction of Nord Stream 2 would be over.
"The situation is being analyzed. Completing the pipeline’s construction is the main target," he said when asked if the contractor commissioned to lay the pipeline could be replaced.
On December 20, US sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 and Turkish Stream projects took effect. On December 21, the Switzerland-based company Allseas, which lays the Nord Stream2 pipeline, declared it was suspending construction work.
