Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced yesterday that he had appointed businessman and former State Department official Amos Hochstein to serve as the Department’s Senior Advisor for Energy Security, to assist in promoting “energy security for the United States and our allies and partners.” Blinken explained that Hochstein’s “immediate focus will be implementation of measures to reduce the risks posed by the Nord Stream 2 pipeline,” as per the July 21 Joint Statement by the U.S. and Germany on “Support for Ukraine, European Energy Security, and Our Climate Goals.” Put more explicitly, Blinken said, Hochstein will “push back against the Kremlin’s use of energy as a geopolitical weapon … to advance a more secure and sustainable energy future for Ukraine and frontline NATO and EU countries.” Axios recalled today that in 2017, Hochstein labeled Nord Stream 2 “an existential crisis for Ukraine.”