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“These statements are really strange and incomprehensible,” a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said on Friday. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert added: “I can only confirm this.”
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the German head of Diplomacy, Heiko Maas, had stated that he did not rule out the possibility of new sanctions, but at the same time highlighted the interest in talking with Russia.
Maas said on Wednesday that Berlin should not “break bridges” with Moscow.
“I do not support the destruction of all bridges with Russia,” the German diplomat told the Bundestage on Wednesday about the fate of the Russian Nord Stream 2 import gas pipeline project.
In the words of Maas, “those who doubt Nord Stream 2 should think geostrategically, understand the consequences.”
Such politicians, according to Maas, only “bring Russia closer to China.”
Nord Stream 2 is worth $ 10 billion. A € 1bn pipeline to double Russia’s natural gas supply to Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is supporting the project.
However, it is highly criticized by the United States. The administration of former President Donald Trump has been particularly active in promoting the use of American gas and has openly criticized the countries of the European Union for their dependence on Russian energy resources.
Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states are also actively opposing the construction of the pipeline, fearing that Moscow could use the pipeline through the Baltic Sea to exert political pressure against Europe.
France asked Germany last week to abandon the pipeline, but the appeal was not heard in Berlin.
EU-Russia relations have been strained since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and began inciting war in eastern Ukraine.
Relations deteriorated further after a Russian court sent Alexei Navalna, a critic of the Kremlin, to Russia from Germany for nearly three years after returning to bars, where he was treated with Novičiok, a nerve-paralyzing substance created by Soviet scientists after their poisoning. in August.
The opposition has blamed Russian special services and President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning, but the Russian authorities have denied the allegations.
His imprisonment sparked mass protests in Russia, during which more than 10,000 were arrested. people.
EU foreign ministers are due to discuss their next steps on Russia at a meeting on February 22.
Navaln’s defenders call on the EU to impose sanctions on oligarchs accused of protecting Putin’s assets and financing his regime.
Lavrov threatens to break relations with the EU
Russia threatens to sever relations with the European Union (EU) if Brussels issues new sanctions on the country, Reuters reports.
His country is determined to do so, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview, excerpts of which were posted on his ministry’s website on Friday. “We don’t want to be isolated from world life, but we must be prepared for that. If you want peace, you have to prepare for war,” Lavrov said.
In the wake of this controversial interview, the Kremlin attempted to rectify the situation by explaining that Lavrov’s statements had been taken out of context.
“The media present this sensible headline without context, and it is a huge media error, a mistake that changes the meaning. The point is that we do it [nutraukti santykių] we simply do not want, we want to develop relations with the European Union. But if the EU goes this way, then … yes, we will be ready, “President Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told reporters later on Friday.
According to him, the media “distorted the meaning and presented this sensational headline in such a way that Russia would hardly initiate the termination of relations with the EU.”
When asked if a situation could be reached when diplomatic relations between Moscow and the EU were broken, Peskov replied: steps. “
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday that Russia would react if the EU announced new sanctions.
“I would like to warn our partners in the EU not to take hasty action,” Zacharova said, adding that any new sanction “would inevitably lead to a proportionate response.”
Russia-EU relations have notably cooled down recently due to the imprisonment of opposition politician Alexei Navaln.
Three EU diplomats told Reuters that Brussels was considering freezing the accounts of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies and issuing a travel ban. Recently, France and Germany have indicated that they will support the sanctions. According to the sources, the sanctions could be announced later this month.
In the Russia-EU conflict over Navaln, the tone has sharpened dramatically recently. Russia sent EU diplomats a week ago, just as the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visited Moscow.
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