Biden, who says Russia's actions are the start of an "invasion" of Ukraine, sanctioned pipeline developer Nord Stream 2 AG, which is backed by Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, and its corporate officers including CEO Matthias Warnig. It comes a day after Biden unveiled a slew of sanctions targeting Russian financial institutions in an attempt to cut the country off from Western financing.
The retaliatory measures follow President Vladimir Putin's decision Monday evening to deploy forces into the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and assertion that those regions' borders are farther than previously recognized.
"These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine," Biden said of the Nord Stream 2 sanctions in a statement Wednesday. "As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate."
Biden's move to sanction Nord Stream 2 also comes one day after Germany blocked certification of the pipeline, which has already been built and is awaiting final approval to go into service. Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced at a Berlin press conference that he asked the country's Federal Ministry of Economics to withdraw a report needed to certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline after Russia's recognition of the breakaway regions rendered the situation "fundamentally different."
"Through his actions, President Putin has provided the world with an overwhelming incentive to move away from Russian gas and to other forms of energy," Biden said Wednesday. "I want to thank Chancellor Scholz for his close partnership and continued dedication to holding Russia accountable for its actions."
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would connect Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, has proven a hugely contentious point amid the broader geopolitical power struggle between Russia and the West.
Western officials have accused Russia of using the pipeline to further cement its dominance over Europe's energy market, and hurt Ukraine by bypassing the country and thus denying it transmission fees.
The pipeline has been the focus of court battles over European Union rules governing pipelines, U.S. sanctions and a $7.6 billion fine by Polish competition authorities who accused Gazprom in 2020 of skirting regulatory approval for the project.
But the heat over the project reached a fever pitch amid Russia's moves on Ukraine, including the buildup of thousands of troops along the border between the two countries and Putin signing a decree Monday that recognized the two regions in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. The regions were the focus of the so-called Minsk agreements inked between Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists between 2014 and 2015 drawing down conflict in the region.
The U.S. and other Western nations have issued a raft of sanctions in response. Biden on Monday inked an executive order barring individuals in the U.S. from investing, trading or financing in the two breakaway regions, and on Tuesday expanded sanctions by targeting Russian state-owned banks Vnesheconombank and Promsvyazbank and their subsidiaries, as well as Promsvyazbank's CEO and several of the nation's elites. The latest sanctions also block U.S. entities from buying Russian sovereign debt.
Biden has threatened further sanctions if Russia proceeds to invade Ukraine.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of several U.S. lawmakers that have pressed Biden to block Nord Stream 2, said in a statement Wednesday that he would lift holds on several nominees for national security positions, including at the State Department.
"President Biden made the right decision today," Cruz said. "Allowing Putin's Nord Stream 2 to come online would have created multiple, cascading, and acute security crises for the United States and our European allies for generations to come. Today's announcement is critical to preventing such scenarios."
A Nord Stream 2 representative couldn't be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.
--Additional reporting by Grace Dixon and Bryan Koenig. Editing by Patrick Reagan.
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