Nord Stream 2: how Putin’s pipeline paralysed the west

Gazprom's $11bn project to deliver gas from Russia to Germany seems impossible to abandon and impossible to carry forward

The saga of Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline between Russia and Germany running along the Baltic seabed, has been stuck so long it has been likened to a suitcase at an airport without a handle - impossible to abandon, and impossible to carry forward. Most of the original cast of characters - Jean-Claude Juncker, Angela Merkel, Matteo Renzi, David Cameron, Petro Poroshenko - have left the political stage. Only one politician has survived the entire story: Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, and the master of divide and rule.

First announced in 2015, the $11bn (8.3bn) pipeline owned by Russia's state-backed energy giant Gazprom has been built to carry gas from western Siberia, doubling the existing capacity of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and keeping 26m German homes warm at an affordable price.