MOSCOW, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The energy watchdog founded by industrial nations after Arab nations launched an oil embargo is sounding alarms over Russia's plans for Europe's gas supply.

One of the world's largest natural gas producers, Russia is building a pipeline under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany in a venture that Poland and its Baltic state neighbors see as a prelude to commodity-based blackmail.

The Kremlin has responded to such concerns by hiring former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who helped negotiate the project, as chairman of the so-called North European Gas Pipeline.

But this week, the International Energy Agency took its first public stand on the pipeline, and it was distinctly alarmist, MosNews said Friday.

The group's chief economist said there is no financial rationale for a $2 billion, 744-mile undersea pipeline that skirts northeastern Europe. While the Kremlin says it will "secure" Poland's energy supplies, "We dismiss that argument," said IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol.

Nor is their any geopolitical reason for Germany to make itself as abjectly dependent on the Kremlin for natural gas as the pipeline will make it, Briol said.

"This is worrying and puts Germany's energy safety at risk."