KARPACZ (Poland), September 8. /TASS/. Germany should complete the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline first, and only after that Berlin should think about possible sanctions and the future of gas supplies via this pipeline, Dirk Niebel, a German politician, former Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (2009-2013) said at an economic forum in Poland on Tuesday.
When asked whether Germany should abandon Nord Stream 2, the politician pointed out that, on the one hand, this project is political in nature.
"But on the other hand, we must resolve the issue of energy supplies as a sovereign nation," he stressed.
"It will be good to finish work on the pipe, but we shouldn't start buying gas," Niebel said.
According to him, in a situation where the laying of the pipe is almost complete, it would be wrong to stop the project. "This is stupid," he said.
"We have to finish the pipeline and then decide whether to buy gas or not," the German politician added, referring to the possible imposition of sanctions against Russia.
Earlier, the leaders of Germany’s Union-90/Greens party demanded termination of the Nord Stream 2 project following the incident with Russian blogger Alexei Navlny. The Free Democratic Party proposed a temporary moratorium on construction until all issues are clarified. Candidate for the post of Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, also spoke for the suspension of the project. Klaus Ernst, the leader of the parliamentary committee for economy and energy, said he did not consider it necessary to stop the project.
Navalny affair
Alexei Navalny was taken to the hospital in Omsk on August 20 after he felt sick on a plane en route from Tomsk to Moscow. He sank into a coma and was put on a lung ventilator. Later he was delivered to Berlin’s Charite hospital, where doctors said they had found traces of intoxication in the patient’s blood. Doctors said on Monday that he had been taken out of his coma and would be gradually switched off from a ventilator.
The German government said on September 2, citing the results of a toxicological analysis carried out by Bundeswehr experts, that Navalny had been poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent. Russia said it was interested in investigating the incident but expected Germany to respond to Moscow’s official request. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that Russian doctors had detected no traces of poisonous substances in Navalny’s body. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in turn, noted that Germany had failed to provide any evidence of poisoning.