Some European leaders have become vocal critics of Washington after U.S. Senate overwhelming passed a new legislation on Iran where a new clause has been amended that push for new sanctions against Russia and cripples the President of the United States’ ability to cancel sanctions on Russia unilaterally. In a 100-member Senate, 97 were for the legislation, two Republicans opposed it, while one Democrat abstained.

Shortly after the Senate voted Wednesday to slap new sanctions on key sectors of Russia's economy over "interference in the 2016 U.S. elections" and aggression in Syria and Ukraine, in a joint statement Austria's Chancellor Christian Kern and Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said it appeared that the Senate bill was aimed at securing US energy jobs and pushing out Russian gas deliveries to Europe. Gabriel and Kern also accused the U.S. of having ulterior motives in seeking to enforce the energy blockade, which they said is trying to help American natural gas suppliers at the expense of their Russian rivals. And they warned the threat of fining European companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project "introduces a completely new, very negative dimension into European-American relations." Nord Stream project is aimed at gas supplies to Germany from Russia via pipelines under the Baltic Sea.

This is the first time any top European leaders have confirmed the views of the Russian President Vladimir Putin who alleged that U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia do not hurt the United States but Europe. While the leaders said that it was important for Europe and the US to form a united front on the issue of Ukraine, "we can't accept the threat of illegal and extraterritorial sanctions against European companies".