MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2021) The implementation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project should not be dependent on the situation around Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, new head of Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Armin Laschet said.
On January 16, Laschet was elected the new head of the CDU some eight months before the parliamentary elections in Germany.
"The attack on Alexey Navalny must be strongly condemned. Now Russia must arrest those behind the attack instead of arresting Navalny. I also want his immediate release. But the issue of gas deliveries - whether they should take place via sea or ground pipelines - does not depend on that," Laschet told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Friday.
He also refuted some foreign countries' criticism of the project, saying that it would not infringe on the strategic interests of Ukraine, as the contract on the pipeline construction protects Ukraine's position as a transit country.
On Thursday, a group of European Parliament lawmakers introduced a resolution calling to halt the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and impose new sanctions on Russia over the arrest of Navalny.
Navalny was detained on Sunday upon his arrival from Germany, where he was treated for his alleged poisoning, and placed in custody for 30 days for violating probation terms on an earlier embezzlement conviction. Many Western countries have issued statements calling for his release while the Russian Foreign Ministry advised them to focus on their own domestic issues.
