Germany threatens to put Nord Stream 2 project on hold as Russia fails to cooperate in Navalny probe

When Russia poisoned Opposition leader AlexeiNavalny, not in its wildest dreams would it have thought that the attack on a critic would hurt Kremlin economically.

Russian diplomats were expelled post the Skripal poisoning and in the worst-case scenario, something similar would have followed Navalny's poisoning.

However, Kremlin forgot to look under the Baltic Sea. The Russian nerve agent may be killing the Nord Stream 2, the pipeline from Russia to Germany is almost complete but Berlin is threatening to put a hold to it and wants to negotiate - cooperate in Navalny's probe, else Berlin will suspend the Nord Stream 2.

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German foreign minister Heiko Mass has warned to Kremlin.

"I hope the Russians won't force us to change our position regarding the Nord Stream 2," Mass said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel endorsed the foreign minister's view.

"The Chancellor shares the remarks made by the foreign minister over the weekend," Steffen Seibert, German government spokesman, said.

There is domestic pressure on Merkel to pursue hard politics. Senior German leaders want Berlin to respond to Navalny's poisoning in perhaps the only language that Putin understands - money.

As Alexei Navalny comes out of the medically-induced coma, the 9.5 billion Euro Nord Stream 2 is staring at life support. The twin pipeline project is 2,460 km long and 2,300 km has already been completed.

The pipeline goes under the Baltic Sea and it is designed to send Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe. Moscow is looking at sending 110 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually.

Currently, Russia supplies 34 per cent of European gas with the Nord Stream 2, the number would touch 40 per cent.

The project is led by Russian company Gazprom and it is expected to start operating in early 2021. The pipeline has survived a lot of attacks - the US sanctioned the project in 2019since it is a big threat to Washington with the export of gas to Europe.

The European Union itself is divided on the Nord Stream 2. Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states believe it will increase the bloc's reliance on Russia. Merkel stood strong against all these objections with pandemic reducing energy demands, and the German economy dipping the question is whether the German Chancellor can separate politics from economy.

Germany could really use some brownie points on human rights.