Trump Team Pitched Letting Russian Gas Flow To Europe Again Through Ukraine

President Donald Trump’s envoys pitched sending Russian gas back to Europe through Ukraine, even as the administration presses the continent to buy American energy.

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, made the pitch on September trips to Russia and Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing American, European and Ukrainian officials.

An American middleman would sell the gas to dodge European sanctions, and U.S. investors could profit, according to people at the talks who spoke to the Journal.

Europeans have shown interest in the idea, which would sharply lower gas prices across the continent, a U.S. official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Any economic deal would come as part of a broader agreement to end the war, the official added.

Ellen Wald, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, said in a statement to the DCNF that she suspects the plan “will not get very far.”

“Russia will never go for it, especially since they are still selling LNG [liquefied natural gas] to Europe,” Wald said.

U.S. natural gas makes up 30 percent of Europe’s consumption, and more American LNG is set to come online, she noted.

“The U.S. proposal seems like an attempt to show consumers that the Trump administration is trying to cut electricity prices,” Wald added.

The European Commission, the Ukrainian Embassy, U.S. gas exporter Venture Global and the trade group Center for LNG did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment. The Energy Department referred the DCNF’s questions to the White House.

Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in a statement to the DCNF that the idea would seem to run counter to the administration’s own push to sell American energy to Europe.

“The Trump administration has been laser focused on expanding LNG deals throughout Europe and building out the vertical corridor in Greece, so it would seem a step backward to reopen Russian gas spigots in any meaningful way,” Goldberg said.

He added that, from an energy dominance standpoint, “you’d want to keep accelerating Europe’s transition to American LNG.”

Max Pyziur, research director at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, said in a statement to the DCNF that the effect on American gas sold to Europe “would be minimal” because much of Qatar’s exports are off the market.

He called the proposal “poorly conceived, of dubious legality, desperate in execution.”