BERLIN-On Tuesday, a German regulator suspended certification of Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline designed to transport natural gas directly from Russia to Germany, which has been the source of a long-standing dispute between Berlin, Washington and Brussels .

This action means that the recently completed pipeline will not soon start supplying natural gas to Germany, and it is carried out in the context of rising energy prices in Europe and tensions between Moscow and Europe due to Belarus and Ukraine issues.

The news caused the European natural gas market to jump, and British natural gas futures prices soared by more than 9% on Tuesday.

At the same time, Germany finds itself in a political dilemma. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a staunch supporter of the pipeline project, has been reduced to a caretaker role, while the leaders of the Social Democratic, Green and Liberal Democrats are debating a new government. The composition of the pet energy project may be detrimental to its predecessor.

In its ruling, the German Federal Network Agency, which is responsible for overseeing the country’s basic infrastructure, stated that the decision by a Swiss company that owns a pipeline to establish a subsidiary in Germany means more paperwork. Once the subsidiary has met the necessary bureaucratic requirements, the assessment can be restarted.

The German institution has no final decision on the project, which also requires the approval of the European Commission, and can only be accepted after the German institution signs it-which means that Europe may enter the spring before any natural gas flows.

That is, if political tensions do not hinder it.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has pushed German regulators to approve the pipeline as a way to alleviate the European gas crisis. He stated at an energy conference in October that once it is regulated, Moscow will "expand supply" along the 750-mile pipeline. Agree. Many Europeans suspect that the Russian leader deliberately blocked the supply of natural gas in order to apply pressure to approve the new pipeline.

But when the leader of Belarus, Alexander G. Lukashenko, threatened to cut off the supply of Russian natural gas to Europe through his country-this was an objection to the European Union's recent claims to win re-election in August and severe suppression-Putin The husband blamed him and told the Europeans that he was speaking in anger.

The United States has been opposed to Nord Stream 2 for many years, but in July, the Biden administration abandoned the threat of sanctions to stop the project after it concluded that the pipeline could not be stopped without a counterproductive struggle with Germany.

Poland and other Eastern European countries also oppose Nord Stream 2, worrying about additional dependence on Russia. Ukraine argues that this pipeline may allow it to receive US$2 billion in annual transit revenue from Russia’s pipeline across its territory and make it more vulnerable to Russian energy blackmail.