BERLIN / SCHWERIN (dpa-AFX) – Greens boss Annalena Baerbock has called for an immediate construction stop for the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. “This pipeline contradicts the geostrategic interests of the Europeans, is specifically directed against the Ukraine, it is a bet against the European climate targets, counteracts all EU sanctions against Russia and is thus an absolutely fatal project,” said Baerbock to the ARD capital studio. The federal government must immediately work towards an end to the project.
Baerbock rejected an only temporary suspension of the construction. FDP leader Christin Lindner had called for a moratorium on the construction of the building in view of the protests in Russia over the weekend. “As long as basic human and civil rights are violated in Russia, we cannot go back to the agenda. Infrastructure projects like Nord Stream 2 are also affected,” he said in an interview with “Spiegel”. Baerbock thinks a moratorium is problematic because it makes it possible to restart the project in the distant future, she told ARD.
“Even before this unbelievable assassination attempt on Mr. Navalny, even before the current images of the protests in Russia, the gas pipeline was wrong, the pipeline has actually been stopped for years,” said Baerbock, calling Nord Stream 2 a “Kremlin’s prestige object”.
The pipeline between Russia and Germany is almost finished, there are only a few kilometers left in Danish and German waters. The USA want to prevent the completion of the pipeline with sanctions, and some Eastern European countries are also criticizing the construction. They argue that the gas pipeline is making Europe too dependent on Russian gas supplies. Proponents of the pipeline accuse the US of only wanting to sell their liquefied gas better./sax/DP/edh
.
