U.S. Threat of ‘Crushing’ Gas Pipeline Measures Riles Berlin (1)

More evidence of U.S. intimidation designed to halt a gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany has provoked anger in Berlin and threatens to further sour already tense transatlantic relations.

Three Republican Senators wrote this week to the operator of Mukran Port on Germany’s Baltic coast, warning of “crushing legal and economic” sanctions over its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 project. The port -- located in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s constituency -- is a supply base for the pipeline, as Russian vessels seek to complete the last stretch of the 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) undersea link.

Nord Stream 2, owned by Russia’s ...