Nord Stream 2 is a commercial project not directly related to what happened to Alexei Navalny, but in the light of new circumstances a non-positive context is being created, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Zoder said live on the N24 TV channel.
Zoder leads the Christian Social Union, which is part of the CDU / CSU centrist-conservative alliance, which nominated Angela Merkel to the post of German chancellor.
“We received bad news yesterday. We support the Chancellor’s course – we call on Russia to give clear answers, on the one hand, on the other hand, we need a clear common position of Europe… As for Nord Stream 2, this is not a state decision, but a private commercial project. One is not related to the other, from our point of view,” – Zoder said.
The German Cabinet of Ministers said on Wednesday that specialists from the Bundeswehr laboratory had established that Navalny, who was being treated in Berlin, was “poisoned” by the substance of the Novichok group of toxic warfare agents. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that Berlin did not inform Moscow about its conclusions about the “poisoning” of Navalny by “Novichok”, Russia does not have such data. The Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on the statement of the German Cabinet, noted that the Russian side is waiting for a response from Germany to the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office on the situation around Navalny. Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline should be completed; it is inappropriate to link this issue with the Navalny case.