[ad_1]
In the dispute over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Russia hopes that Germany will provide evidence. “It is time to leave the letters open, because it is clear to everyone: Berlin is bragging to serve a dirty political rampage,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
That refers to the results of investigations in a German armed forces laboratory and tests by the German Foreign Ministry, Sakharova wrote. Russia denies being involved in the case.
The German ambassador is expected for a meeting, Sakharova said. The conversation should take place on Wednesday, according to the German embassy. The Berlin Foreign Ministry said it was a long-planned meeting.
In Germany, meanwhile, discussion continues about the possible effects on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is being built across the Baltic Sea and is intended to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. The Austrian MVNO is also involved in the project.
Navalny, one of the fiercest opponents of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, fell into a coma on August 20 on a domestic flight in Russia and was later transferred to the Berlin Charité at the insistence of his family. After investigations in a special laboratory of the German Armed Forces, the German government had announced that it considered it to be proven beyond any doubt that Navalny had been poisoned with the military neurotoxin Novitschok. On Monday it was announced that the 44-year-old came out of a coma after more than two weeks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a meeting of the Union parliamentary group in Berlin, according to information from the German Press Agency from several participants about a possible stop of Nord Stream 2: “I have not yet rendered a final judgment.”
Following this information, Merkel said that a step-by-step response will now be discussed in the European Union, at the latest at the EU summit in Brussels on September 24-25. In the EU, not everyone is making Nord Stream 2 a problem. As a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Russia could also contribute to education. However, so far nothing has been seen about it. Merkel emphasized: “A European reaction is required, it was not a special attack on Germany.”
The Kremlin made it known that it considers the discussions about a possible freeze on Nord Stream 2 superfluous. “Why should we talk about negative measures against the international project, in which German companies are also involved?” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri said. Peskow of the Interfax agency in Moscow. The Kremlin sees the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany as an economic and not a political project, which has been the line of the German government until now.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki asked Germany to move away from Nord Stream 2 in view of the Navalny poisoning and the threat of Russian intervention in Belarus. This is the “latest wake-up call” for the German government to halt the project, he told Bloomberg TV. . “I think after the Navalny case it should be a sure success.” Nord Stream 2 bypasses transit countries like Poland and Ukraine. The Warsaw government fears that Russia could thus increase Europe’s dependence on its gas supplies and put pressure on former transit countries.
Quelle: What / Dpa
