WSJ: American investor wants to buy Nord Stream 2 at auction

American investor Stephen Lynch, who lived and did business in Russia for a long time, wants the US government to allow him to bid for the sale of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline when it is put up for auction in Swiss bankruptcy proceedings.

This is reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

He is proving to the US officials that American ownership of the pipeline will leverage any peace talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and serve long-term US interests.

"The bottom line is this: this is a unique opportunity for America and Europe to control Europeʼs energy supply until the end of the fossil fuel era," Lynch said in an interview.

The Wall Street Journal reviewed the letter written by the investorʼs lawyers. The American newspaper writes that he applied for a license to the US Treasury Department in February. The license would allow him to negotiate the construction of the pipeline with entities currently under US sanctions.

The letter states that the bankruptcy procedure for Nord Stream 2 set a January deadline for debt restructuring, or else the gas pipeline will be liquidated. Lynch argues that once the war is over, Russia and its former clients in Germany and Europe will be tempted to turn on the pipeline, regardless of who owns it.

Nord Stream 2 is valued at approximately $11 billion. However, Lynch is confident that he will be able to buy it at a significantly reduced price. He believes that many investors will not participate in the auction because of the "complicated geopolitics surrounding the pipeline," and other bidders are likely to include Russian proxies, Chinese entities or others whose policies the US disagrees with.

Former government officials with experience in Russia say that Lynchʼs plan may fail, but it could also be used for peace talks in Ukraine, so the investorʼs plan could come to fruition.

A former special adviser to President Biden and a friend of Lynch — Lee Wolosky — says the investorʼs offer to negotiate the purchase of Nord Stream 2 "is in the strategic interests of the United States and its allies".

What is known about Stephen Lynch

Lynch lived in Moscow for almost 20 years and remained there even after many foreigners left the Russian Federation when Putin consolidated power, writes the WSJ.

The investor moved to Miami in 2019 due to concerns about the social environment in Moscow and difficulties for US citizens in doing business due to increased sanctions.

In 2022, it received a license from the US Treasury Department to buy the Swiss subsidiary of Russiaʼs Sberbank after the US imposed sanctions on the parent company.

Lynch generally became successful by buying up Russian assets on the cheap.

In 1998, when Russia was in financial crisis, he founded Monte Valle Partners to buy distressed real estate assets there.

His first success came when he bought a large project near the Moscow airport from billionaire Alfred Taubman. He sold most of his stake in it to Russian business partners in 2007, when the liquidation of the Yukos oil company began.

Lynch was also suspected of ties to the Russian government.

The civil fraud lawsuit alleged that Lynch and a group of foreign investors participated in a rigged auction in 2007 to sell assets belonging to former oil giant Yukos. Managers of the Dutch subsidiary of Yukos claimed that the investors conspired with Russian officials to pre-determine the sale of their company at a fixed price. Lynch and other investors deny the allegations.

In 2019, a British judge dismissed the charges against Lynch and other investors, writing that there was no evidence of lying.

At the same time, some of Lynchʼs friends said that he had established relations with Russian officials, as if without this it was impossible to be a successful gay businessman in the Russian Federation. But the friends added that they knew nothing about whether Lynch was working in the interests of Putin or his inner circle.

During the last election, Lynch gave more than $300 000 to Trumpʼs committees and the Republican National Committee.

Blasts of Nordic Streams

On September 26, 2022, three explosions occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines that run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, causing massive gas leaks. Only one of the four threads of the gas pipeline remained intact. The Western media wrote that Russia will preserve the Nord Streams because it is not going to repair them after the accidents.

The governments of the United States, Great Britain, and the EU have declared targeted sabotage. Russia believes that the United States and its allies are interested in the explosions. Western and Russian media wrote about different versions — from sabotage by the Russians themselves to the involvement of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky denied Ukraineʼs involvement in sabotage.

In early February 2024, Sweden closed the investigation into the Nord Stream blow-up due to lack of jurisdiction. Following Sweden, Denmark also completed the investigation.

Now Germany is investigating the role of ex-commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhnyi in the undermining of the Nord Streams, as reported by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky allegedly initially approved the plan, but later ordered it to be canceled, and Zaluzhnyi continued the operation despite this.

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