For the past year, U.S. officials and Russia hawks on Capitol Hill have closely watched the peregrinations of a Russian ship, as it sailed from Russias Far East around Africa to the Baltic Sea.
The vessela nearly 500-foot pipe-layer named the Akademik Cherskiyis the sole Russian-owned ship capable of completing an $11 billion pipeline. Nord Stream 2 is designed to carry natural gas under the Baltic from Russia to Germany, but its construction has been stalled for a year by the threat of U.S. sanctions.
As…
