Germany raises pressure on Russia in Navalny case

Berlin, September 6

Germany on Sunday raised pressure on Russia over the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, warning that lack of support by Moscow in the investigation could “force” Germany to rethink the fate of a German-Russian gas pipeline project.

“I hope the Russians won’t force us to change our position regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told a weekly.

‘Don’t force us to change stance’

I hope the Russians won’t force us to change our position regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea. —Heiko Maas, German Foreign Minister

Maas also said, “If there won’t be any contributions from the Russian side regarding the investigation in the coming days, we will have to consult our partners.” He did not exclude possible punishments against Russia, telling the weekly that “if we think about sanctions, they should be pinpointed effectively”. However, Maas also admitted that halting the building of the nearly completed gas pipeline would harm German and European companies.

France: Russia has explaining to do

Paris: French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday slammed the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and said Russia must provide explanations.”It is a serious situation. This is one more Russian opponent who is poisoned on Russian soil with a Russian military product,” he said. —Reuters

“Whoever demands this has to be aware of the consequences,” he said. “More than 100 companies from 12 European countries are involved (in the construction), about half of them from Germany.” The German Government has come under growing pressure to use the joint German-Russian pipeline project as leverage in getting Russia to provide answers on Navalny.

The Nord Stream 2 project would deliver Russian gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea when completed, bypassing Ukraine.

Navalny, a Kremlin critic and corruption investigator, fell ill on a flight to Moscow last month and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk.

Russia had said on Thursday that the West should not rush to judge it over the poisoning of Navalny and that there were no grounds to accuse it of the crime. — Reuters