By Zeeshan Aleem @ Vox.com, July 26

[....] If the bill becomes law, the Republican Party will be taking its first concrete steps to constrain Trump’s unpredictable and politically risky behavior on Russia. The problem is that the European Union appears poised to punish the US for it.

Europe wouldn’t be taking those steps against the US because the leaders of countries like Germany and France oppose Russian sanctions per se, but because one specific new set of sanctions could wreak havoc on European energy companies.

Here’s why. The new bill would allow the US to sanction any company involved in the maintenance or development of Russia’s energy export pipelines. That could cripple the construction of a colossal natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany known as Nord Stream 2, which is owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom but also has European investors.

The EU is not happy about the situation, to put it lightly [....]