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A politician running for the presidency of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) noted in an interview on national public service radio Deutschlandfunk that Russian President Vladimir Putin “only understands the language of power.” Of the forms of sanctions, only punitive economic measures restricting the export of natural gas, which is one of the main Russian exports, are affected.
Therefore, it is necessary to stop the laying of the second pair of Nord Stream gas pipelines that transport Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
– said the prestigious CDU politician, emphasizing that it is time to create a “true European foreign policy, otherwise Putin will not take Europe seriously.”
In relation to the case of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader fed with toxic symptoms in Berlin, he also said that the Russian leadership was trying to impress on the minds of the opposition that their lives were in danger. As he said, the Russian national security services did not lose sight of Alexei Navalny for a moment, keeping the opposition politician under constant surveillance.
Wolfgang Ischinger, director of the International Conference on Security Policy (MSC) in Munich, also sees stopping the construction of Nord Stream-2 as a possible sanction. At the same time, it is also clear that sanctions policy will only be on the agenda when governments run out of effective tools and “have little other idea” and the closure of the gas pipeline project goes hand in hand with the question of “how much damage we have already become German companies, ”Wolfgang Ischinger told Der Spiegel.
The director of the number one international forum on security policy stressed that the Navalny affair was “sadly the end of the idea of a strategic partnership.” As he said, instead of seeking strategic cooperation with the EU, Moscow pursues a “reactive and defensive” foreign policy, the starting point of which is that the “Western model” is a threat. Russia looks huge from a distance, but on closer inspection it is getting smaller. Its gross domestic product is less than Italy’s, and there is a constant brain drain narrowing the elite of its society: explained the director of the MSC, adding that on the one hand you can count on how many friends Russia has made with its apparently successful in the short term, but with its foreign policy “defensive and fall” in the long term.
On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled on the evaluation of the proposal to stop the construction of the gas pipeline. In a briefing with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, answering a question, he explained that the reaction of Germany and the EU depended on the actions of the Russian side. Stefan Löfven emphasized that the use of chemical weapons was contrary to international humanitarian law and that the EU should respond to Russia’s “assassination attempt” against Alexei Navalny in a unified way. However, since the crime took place in Russia, the Russian authorities must investigate what happened and bring the perpetrators to justice.
It is so fair and just to say that now it has followed
– Said the Swedish Prime Minister, adding: “It is quite clear that the Russian government owes us some answers.”
Alexei Navalny is one of the best known critics of the Russian head of state. On August 20, he negotiated with opponents in Siberia and fell ill on the plane back to Moscow. The comatose politician was transferred to Berlin on August 22 for medical treatment. Based on samples taken from his organization, the German Army (Bundeswehr) in its chemical weapons expert laboratory showed that he had been poisoned with a Novicok-type type of combat neurotoxin developed by the former Soviet Army.
When evaluating the results of the investigation, the German government said on Wednesday that the leader of the Russian opposition had been the victim of a toxic attack in his country. Berlin condemns the attack as strongly as possible and will begin talks with its EU and NATO partners on the appropriate response, they said.
Cover image: Getty Images
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