BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th September, 2020) Germany hopes Russia's response to the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny will not prompt Berlin to alter its stance on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
Navalny is currently undergoing treatment in the Berlin-based Charite hospital after suffering a medical emergency in late August. On Wednesday, the German government said that doctors found traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group in his system. This prompted many in the West to call for new economic sanctions against Russia, including by halting the construction of Nord Stream 2, a massive offshore pipeline designed to pump Russian gas directly to Germany.
"I hope that the Russians will not make us change our position on Nord Stream 2. Those who demand it must perceive of the consequences. The Nord Stream 2 project includes more than 100 companies from 12 European countries, with around half of them from Germany," Maas told German Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
Echoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement from last week, Maas said that "bringing the [Navalny case] debate down to only Nord Stream 2 was not consistent with what had happened."
Russia, too, has called for not linking Nord Stream 2, a commercial project, to the Navalny case, as stated by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier this week.
On August 20, Navalny fell ill during a domestic Russian flight. He was initially treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane made an emergency landing. Two days later, once the doctors established he was fit for a cross-border aerial transportation, the man was flown to Charite for further treatment.
German doctors initially claimed they found traces of a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors in his system, before flagging the Novichok poisoning.
