In this Nov 2, 2020 file photo, sunlight shines on the US Capitol building on Capitol Hill in Washington. (PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP)

WASHINGTON/CARACAS/MEXICO CITY - The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed sanctions against Russia and Venezuela on its last full day in office.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the United States has blacklisted Russia-based entity KVT-RUS and the vessel FORTUNA for their involvement of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

The US Treasury Department said it imposed the sanctions on the Russian pipe-laying ship “Fortuna” and its owner, KVT-RUS, under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Hours before the official announcement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the project was under “unlawful” US pressure and that the Kremlin was closely watching developments in order to ensure the pipeline’s completion

“The United States is not afraid to hold accountable those who continue to aid and abet this tool of Russian coercion,” Pompeo said.

Hours before the official announcement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the project was under “unlawful” US pressure and that the Kremlin was closely watching developments in order to ensure the pipeline’s completion.

Washington claimed that the Nord Stream 2 project, stretching 1,230 kilometers from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, served as Moscow's tools to exploit European dependence on Russia's energy supplies.

ALSO READ: US moves to block Russia's gas pipeline seen as motivated

Russian officials said that the US created obstacles to the project to fill the European market with its own more expensive liquefied natural gas.  

President-elect Joe Biden, who will replace President Donald Trump on Wednesday, has opposed Nord Stream 2 in the past. Antony Blinken, Biden’s nominee to be secretary of state, told his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday that Biden strongly agrees with members of Congress that the pipeline is a bad idea.

US blacklists oil traders, tankers for undermining Venezuela sanctions

Meanwhile, Pompeo announced in a separate statement Tuesday designations against multiple individuals, entities and vessels that have helped Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA sell crude mainly to Asia despite Washington’s sanctions on the South American nation.

Venezuela’s foreign ministry, in a statement, called the US move “a new, desperate aggression against the Venezuelan people by the outgoing government of (U.S. President) Donald Trump”

The measure targets a network that the Treasury says helped the administration of President Nicolas Maduro, whose 2018 re-election Washington called a sham, broker the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan oil.

The Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, targeted three individuals, 14 entities and six vessels for their ties to a network attempting to evade US sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector.

Venezuela’s foreign ministry, in a statement, called the move “a new, desperate aggression against the Venezuelan people by the outgoing government of (U.S. President) Donald Trump.”

READ MORE: US said to weigh tighter sanctions on Venezuelan oil