text: Germany ups pressure on Russia in Alexei Navalny poisoning probe | Business Standard News
  German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Sunday: "I hope the Russians won't force us to change our position regarding Nord Stream II."
  AP | Berlin Last Updated at September 7, 2020 01:05 IST
  Navalny, a Kremlin critic and corruption investigator, fell ill on a flight to Moscow last month.
  Germany on Sunday increased pressure on Russia over the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, warning that a lack of support by Moscow in the investigation could force Germany to rethink the fate of a German-Russian gas pipeline project.
  I hope the Russians won't force us to change our position regarding the Nord Stream 2" pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told weekly Bild am Sonntag.
  Maas also said, If there won't be an contributions from the Russian side regarding the investigation in the coming days, we will have to consult with our partners. He did not exclude possible punishments against Russia, telling the newspaper that if we think about sanctions, they should be pinpointed effectively".
  Whoever demands this has to be aware of the consequences, he said. More than 100 companies from 12 European countries are involved (in the construction), about half of them from Germany.
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  We have high expectations from the Russians to bring light into this severe crime, Maas said. If they have nothing to do with this attack then it's in their own interest to put the facts on the table.
  The US has long opposed the project, which has been increasingly a source of friction between Berlin and Washington. In early August, three Republican senators threatened sanctions against an operator of a Baltic Sea port located in Merkel's parliamentary constituency over its part in Nord Stream 2. The Mukran port is a key staging post for ships involved in its construction.
  The US argues the project will endanger European security by making Germany overly dependent on Russian gas. It's also opposed by Ukraine and Poland, which will be bypassed by the pipeline under the Baltic, as well as some other European nations.