In the aftermath of Angela Merkel's statements concerning the alleged poisoning of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, several personalities in Germany called for an immediate response to Vladimir Poutine, in particular using the lever of gas sales.

The Russian opponent fell victim to discomfort on August 20 on board a plane between Siberia and Moscow after drinking tea at the airport.

Hospitalized in Omsk, Siberia, he was transferred on August 22 to Germany where the government said on Wednesday it had proof that he had been poisoned by a product of the Novichok family, already used against the former Russian spy Sergey Skripal in 2018 in the UK.

"There must be a European response," the chairman of the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee, Norbert Röttgen, told Deutschlandfunk radio on Thursday morning.

"We must lead tough policies, we must respond with the only language that Putin understands: gas sales," continued this CDU executive Angela Merkel, to whom German radio asked if it was necessary to stop the construction site. Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany.

#Russia pursues inhuman & contemptuous politics.

Diplomatic rituals are no longer enough.

After the poisoning of #Nawalny we need a strong European answer, which #Putin understands: The EU should jointly decide to stop # NordStream2.

- Norbert Röttgen (@n_roettgen) September 3, 2020

Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to Washington now chairman of the Munich Security Conference, expressed a similar view, stressing that a classic response based on expelling diplomats would not be enough.

"If we want to send a clear message to Moscow with our partners, economic relations must be on the agenda and this means that the Nord Stream 2 project must not be put aside," he said.

However, Ischinger is not asking for a total boycott.

"We cannot erect a wall between the West and Russia, that would be going too far, but there is a middle ground between diplomatic movements and a total boycott," he said.

Sadly, the deep concerns about #Russia I expressed a few days ago in @ derspiegel-interview have now been reenforced.

Mutual trust, built up over long years, has evaporated.

How is any -selective - cooperation possible, in the absence of trust?

Can EU-and NATO-speak with one voice?

https://t.co/jYQguIToGE

- Wolfgang Ischinger (@ischinger) September 2, 2020

Moscow denies accusations

Russia, through its Foreign Ministry, has refuted the German accusations, saying Berlin has no evidence and lamenting that Germany has not cooperated with it.

France and the European Union, on the other hand, followed the accusations of Berlin, condemning the poisoning and speaking of an infringement of international law.

The German announcements also provoked strong reactions in the United States where the White House deemed the poisoning of Navalny "absolutely reprehensible".

With Reuters

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