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The attempt to poison opposition leader Alexei Navalny shows that a constructive dialogue with Russia is impossible, and the most rational approach on the part of Germany is to abandon the Nord Stream 2 project. This opinion was expressed by Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki .
After the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Germany must stop the Nord Stream 2 gas project. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote about this in a column for the German FAZ, which was published on September 13.
According to him, the gas pipeline “undermines the EU’s energy policy from within”: Russia, under the guise of economic cooperation, is gaining influence in the behavior of one of the most important countries of the EU and NATO: Germany.
It is impossible to maintain a constructive dialogue with a state that violates international standards and norms of international law, Moravetsky continued.
According to the prime minister, the only rational way out is “to archive the Nord Stream 2 project.”
The pipeline has already cost too much for Europe’s credibility and security, complains the author of the column. He believes that Moscow will change its policy only if it loses space for economic projects that allow it to keep the continent’s countries in check.
The European Union needs courage and leadership, not “condescension to aggressive actions by Moscow,” Moravetsky summarized.
Nord Stream 2 is a gas pipeline that is supposed to connect Russia with Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The length of the route is more than 1200 km, the capacity of the new gas pipeline will be 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The cost of the project is about 9.9 billion euros, it is financed in half by the Russian “Gazprom” and five European companies: the Anglo-Dutch Shell, the German Wintershall and Uniper, the French Engie and the Austrian OMV.
Authorities in the United States, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia consider Nord Stream 2 a threat to Europe’s energy security.
Construction of the gas pipeline has been frozen as the US imposed sanctions on European contractors involved in the project in December 2019. Immediately after that, the Swiss company Allseas suspended construction work on Nord Stream 2 and recalled its vessels. laying of pipelines of the Baltic Sea. Gazprom announced that Russian pipelayers will participate in the completion of the project.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel argued as early as September 1 that Nord Stream 2 would be completed despite threats from the United States. On September 8, she said that she would coordinate any action against Russia in relation to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Navalny with European partners, but has not yet decided whether any action against Moscow will affect the construction of the gas pipeline.
On September 11, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline could be frozen in response to the Navalny poisoning.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that Nord Stream 2 is not a European project and its fate depends on the FRG.
The regular plane in which Navalny was returning to Moscow after a trip to Siberia, on August 20, landed urgently in Omsk due to the probable poisoning of the politician. The opposition team believes that a toxic substance was mixed in their tea.
Navalny was unconscious in the toxic intensive care unit of the emergency hospital number 1 in Omsk, he was connected to a ventilator. Navalny’s main diagnosis in a Russian hospital was called a metabolic disorder.
On August 22, Navalny was airlifted to the Berlin clinic “Charite”. On August 24, German doctors announced that Navalny had been poisoned.
On September 2, the German government announced that traces of a substance similar in composition to Novichok had been found in Navalny’s body. The biological material extracted from the politician was examined by a special laboratory of the German armed forces. The Berlin official condemned the attack on the opposition leader and demanded an explanation from the Russian authorities.
The Russian Foreign Ministry responded that Germany’s statements about the Navalny poisoning were not supported by facts.
Doctors at the Charite clinic announced on September 7 that Navalny had been pulled out of a medical coma and had been disconnected from the ventilator. The Russian politician began to react to the verbal stimuli.
Germany has handed over to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons the results of an investigation into the Navalny poisoning.
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