frankfurt us president joe biden has threatened to block the nord stream 2 natural gas pipeline if russia invades ukrainethe undersea pipeline directly links russian gas to europe via germany and is complete but not yet operating it has become a major target as western governments try to deter a russian attack on its neighborin the past it has been a source of tension between the us which opposed the project and germany chancellor olaf scholz said all options were on the table but avoided mentioning nord stream 2 specifically at a news conference with biden in washingtonif russian tanks roll into ukraine there will be no longer a nord stream 2 biden said monday scholz stressed the need to keep some ambiguity about sanctions to press russia to deescalatehere are key things to understand about the pipelinewhat is nord stream 2a 1230kilometerlong 764milelong natural gas pipeline under the baltic sea running from russia to germanys baltic coastit would double the capacity of an earlier nord stream pipeline to 110 billion cubic meters of gas a year and sidesteps ukraine and poland which would lose transit fees they also said the project would increase russias leverage over europethe pipeline has been filled with gas but is not operating yet pending approval by germanys utility regulators and the european commissionwhy does russia want the pipelinestateowned producer gazprom says it will meet europes growing need for affordable natural gas and complement existing pipelines through belarus and ukraineeurope imports most of its gas and gets around 40 from russia nord stream 2 would offer an alternative to ukraines aging system lower costs by saving transit fees paid to ukraine and poland and avoid episodes like brief 2006 and 2009 gas cutoffs over price and payment disputes between russia and ukrainewhy is biden against itthe us european nato allies such as poland and ukraine have opposed the project going back before the biden administration they said it gives russia the possibility of using gas as a geopolitical weaponbiden waived sanctions against the pipelines operator when it was almost complete in return for an agreement from germany to take action against russia if it used gas as a weapon or attacks ukraine but the us still thinks nord stream 2 is a bad ideameanwhile scholz who took the helm in germany in december backed the project as angela merkels finance minister and his social democratic party supported itwhile he has avoided referring to nord stream 2 specifically scholz says russia would face severe consequences and that sanctions must be ready ahead of timehow would biden block nord stream 2the us could impose heavy financial sanctions penalizing anyone or any company that does business involving the pipeline effectively scaring away banks and businesses and making it impossible for the pipeline to operatebiden hasnt said if thats the route he might pursue asked monday how the us would stop something thats under german control biden only said i promise you well be able to do it