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The words Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) chose on Wednesday were unusually harsh. Merkel is rarely clear about what she believes it is about: an “attempted poisoning” of one of Russia's leading oppositionists: “He should be silenced.” Merkel speaks of “serious questions” that Moscow “has to answer”. The Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent.

Now the facts are on the table - and the Navalny case is becoming an endurance test for German-Russian relations. Merkel holds out the prospect of a reaction - together with the EU and NATO. What this reaction should look like remains to be seen.

As soon as details about the Navalny case became known, the pipeline debate broke out in Germany. In the opposition in particular, voices are increasing to break off Nord Stream 2 "The apparent attempted murder by the mafia-like structures of the Kremlin can no longer just worry us, it must have real consequences," said Green Party leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt. For FDP leader Christian Lindner it is clear: "A regime that organizes poisonous murders is not a counterpart for large cooperation projects, not even for pipeline projects."

The head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, said on the Bayern 2 station that the whole spectrum of possible measures must now be on the table. This also included “economic projects”. Nord Stream 2, however, is “a difficult point” - “because if we don't finish this pipeline we would of course shoot ourselves in the knee, so to speak”. Merkel herself had emphasized on Tuesday that she wanted to complete the project.

But the pressure on Merkel is now increasing. It had enforced Nord Stream 2 against the will of numerous European partners - and always defended it against the USA. US President Donald Trump is a thorn in the side of the pipeline. Washington imposed sanctions in late 2019 to prevent completion of the pipeline. In mid-July, the US government threatened further sanctions.

The US argue that Germany and Europe would become energy-dependent on Moscow. Germany would “throw billions” into Putin, criticized Trump recently. Critics accuse the USA of only wanting to export its own liquefied gas at the highest possible prices.

Merkel is therefore in a dilemma. It needs a good relationship with its NATO partner USA, but it is also dependent on Putin when it comes to the future of the Middle East, for example. Without Moscow, little can be achieved here, and his influence on Turkish President Erdogan is also important for Europe.

In addition: Germany is dependent on Russian natural gas. The parallel phasing out of nuclear power and coal will even increase the demand for natural gas. The completed pipeline is to ensure the gas supply to Germany and the European Union (EU) over a distance of 1230 kilometers. The capacity of the line is 55 billion cubic meters per year. That corresponds to the loads of 600 to 700 liquid gas tankers. According to the operating company Nord Stream 2 AG, this gas is necessary to close the EU's increasingly large import gap.

Of course there is also a lot of money involved. Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) - who chairs the Supervisory Board at Nord Stream AG - therefore issued an emphatic warning at a hearing in front of the Bundestag Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy in July. According to Schröder, investments of twelve billion euros would have to be written off if the project should still fail.

Both Russian and German companies would then have to bear these losses. Five European groups - Wintershall, Uniper, OMV, Engie and Royal Dutch Shell - each contributed 950 million euros. The rest was financed by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which is also the 100 percent owner of Nord Stream 2 AG.

An end to the pipeline would also have consequences for the German economy and consumers. According to Schröder, who of course speaks in the interests of the companies involved, without the pipeline there would be additional costs of five billion euros a year for the procurement of gas. And Germany has to do it one way or another: imports make up over 90 percent of German natural gas consumption.

In addition, deliveries from Russia are likely to increase one way or another. This was pointed out by the economist André Wolf from the Hamburg World Economic Institute (HWWI) at the Schröder hearing. Given the dwindling resources in the North Sea, Russia's share of deliveries will increase - even without Nord Stream 2.

In case of doubt, German companies and households will continue to use Russian gas - only that it is more expensive.
Legal consequences could also be added to the economic consequences. The smeared companies should not want to sit on the losses - and make recourse claims against the federal government. This means that it cannot be ruled out that a failure of the project over the last few kilometers would ultimately even affect the German taxpayer.


https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland..._12390875.html