The American President has recently posted a promise on Twitter regarding an upcoming improvement of US relations with Russia. However, the foundation for this kind of Donald Trump's statements is unclear, since actual movements by his subordinates testify to the contrary. For instance, US Ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell already promised to punish European participants of the Nord Stream 2 project with sanctions in late December, and now he addresses heads of many German companies with a letter repeating his threat of imposing American sanctions against them. This is what a publication of Germany's largest Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag states.

The paper quotes Grenell as following: " We continue to stress that firms operating in the Russian energy export pipeline sector are engaging in activities that carry significant sanctions risk." The American ambassador also notes in his message that "companies supporting the construction of gas pipelines are actively undermining Ukraine's and Europe's security." Well, is there any other way to perceive such words than as a threat? No wonder that without any loss of time Bild am Sonntag editors directed an enquiry to the American Embassy in Berlin. The response of the diplomatic mission was not slow to arrive: "The letter should be seen not as a threat, but as an explicit manifestation of US policy." Nothing more to say. That actually takes some doing unlike Trump's sluggish reflections on Twitter.

Of course, the German Foreign Ministry immediately responded to the US Ambassador's mailout with "an explicit manifestation of US policy", calling this move outrageous and unacceptable for a diplomat. But, as the phrase goes, "a word once spoken cannot be recalled", and the negative reaction of the German side is apparently of little concern to Americans who feel very much at ease in Germany. Meanwhile, let's not forget that along with Russia's Gazprom, not only the German energy giants Wintershall and Uniper are involved in financing Nord Stream 2, but also the British-Dutch Shell company, French Engie (former GDF Suez) and the Austrian oil and gas group OMV.

And still, how can one explain such a burst of activity by the US diplomatic mission in Germany, which violated the serene silence of pre-Christmas and post-New Year weeks? The obvious reason for this was the outcome of 2019 as outlined by the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, since a document published on the Committee's website states that, according to the German companies represented in Russia, anti-Russian sanctions "do not lead to desired political results," and the new American sanctions "are clearly aimed at achieving economic benefits for the United States at the expense of German and European enterprises."

Thus, the German business is not just fearing new American sanctions against European companies and Russia, but also wants the European Union's anti-Russian economic sanctions to be lifted. A survey conducted by the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations and the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce revealed that 52 percent of German enterprises functioning in Russia favor a gradual departure from the EU sanctions regime, with 43 percent demanding its immediate abolition. By the way, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas's keen criticism of prospects for imposing US sanctions against German and other European firms cooperating with Russia drew an immediate rebuke from the American Embassy in Berlin. It could not have been otherwise: after all, a German minister dared to declare Germany's sovereign right to independently decide whom to cooperate with. Sharing this viewpoint is Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations Wolfgang Büchele. Hanging in the balance is energy sovereignty of both Germany and entire Europe, Tagesspiegel quotes him as saying. Executive Director of the organization Michael Harms does not hide his concern over US obsession with sanctions: "The implementation of Nord Stream 2 project involves 627 contractors from around the world", he pointed out the other day in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Moreover, it is even difficult to imagine how irritated the American Embassy in Berlin was after last week saw the presentation of the so-called "new concept" of economic cooperation between Germany, the European Union and Russia prepared by the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations. During the presentation, Wolfgang Büchele called for closer cooperation between Europeans, referring to Russia as an indispensable partner.  In general, the 30-page document covers 15 key mutually rewarding areas of promising cooperation between the EU and the Russian Federation, including, for example, the agricultural sector, space exploration, economy digitalization, energy, medicine and others.