Swiss-based Nord Stream AG, the company in charge of building Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, has fired all its empoyees in the city of Zug.
Layoffs were introduced amid the freezing of the project's certification in Germany and the imposition of US sanctions on the firm.
"We have learnt that all the staff of Nord Stream 2 [...] in Zug, i.e. more than 140 people, have been made redundant,” Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin told RTS Swiss public radio on Monday evening.
The pipeline operator has not yet commented the decision.
As a number of world powers moved to impose sanctions on Moscow amid its ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying the country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday he had instructed the country's ministry of economy to take a "necessary administrative step" to suspend the certification of Nord Stream 2.
According to Axios, the decision was made after "overnight consultations" between the German government and the Joe Biden administration.
For its part, Washington, which has long sought to become the leader in the energy market, on 23 February introduced sanctions targeting the Nord Stream 2 AG company and its CEO, Matthias Warnig.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said his administration had been closely coordinating action on Nord Stream 2 with Germany:
"Today, I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers. These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate."
The US Treasury Department followed up by issuing a general license authorizing the "wind down" of transactions with Nord Stream 2 AG until 2 March.
Washington's penalties against the company were introduced in response to Moscow's recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics following the complete breakdown of the 2014 Minsk Agreements amid hundreds of attacks across the line of contact on a daily basis.
Moscow then began a military operation in Ukraine aimed at “demilitarizing and denazifying” the country following requests for assistance from DPR and LPR , which asked for help amid escalating attacks by Ukrainian forces.
United States President Joseph Biden had previously waived sanctions against Nord Stream 2 AG out of respect for Germany.
The 1,200-km pipeline project under the Baltic Sea, completed last September, is designed to double the flow of Russian gas directly to Germany. The new 55 billion cubic meters-per-year capacity pipeline was set to also double the original Nord Stream capacity to a total of 110 bcm.
A Nord Stream 2 employee works on a platform in the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline's receiving station
© Sputnik / Dmitrij Leltschuk
/ The pipeline cost €9.5 billion ($10.6 billion) to build, with approximately half of this sum financed by a European consortium of companies, including OMV (Austria), Wintershall Dea (Germany), Engie (France), Uniper (Germany), and Shell (UK).
Moscow has repeatedly called on Western nations to stop politicizing Nord Stream 2, which was completed on 10 September, saying that it is a commercial project beneficial to both Russia and the European Union.