Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Germany personally guaranteed that Russia is ready to assume all the funding for the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline if Western investors were threatened by US sanctions, RBC reported referring to Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The Nord Stream 2 AG consortium is engaged in construction of the gas pipeline. In addition to Gazprom, it includes Western investors, among them - the German consortium Uniper, the French Engie, the Austrian OMV, the British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and the subsidiary company BASF Group Wintershall.

Western project investors are threatened with sanctions if they continue to participate in the construction of the pipeline.

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, this threat is more dangerous for companies than leaving a joint venture.

Vladimir Putin reportedly gave guarantees to the German government that Russia would be ready to pay for the Nord Stream-2 project independently, even if western investors came out.