Germany refuses to link the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with the case of Alexei Navalny. This was stated by the official representative of the German government, Steffen Seibert, quoted by TASS.
Seibert stressed that there is no direct connection between the gas pipeline and the Navalny case. According to him, Germany took into account the appeal of the European Parliament to stop the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline due to the arrest of the oppositionist. Nevertheless, German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers the gas pipeline project to be purely economic, and her position on this issue has remained unchanged.
Earlier, MEPs voted for a resolution calling for the immediate blocking of the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline due to Navalny’s arrest. In addition, the parliamentarians demanded that the Council of Europe take a tougher position on this issue and introduce new sanctions against Russia.
The detention of Navalny at the Sheremetyevo airport became known on Sunday, January 17. This happened on the basis of the decision of the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow, according to which the oppositionist was put on the wanted list for systematic violations of the conditions of the probationary period. On January 18, he was arrested for 30 days.
Before his arrest, he was in Berlin, where he was delivered on August 22, 2020. Two days earlier, during the flight from Tomsk to Moscow, Navalny felt unwell, the plane was urgently landed in Omsk.