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Heiko Maas (archive picture): "There is no reason at all not to agree to this"
Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek.net / imago images / photothek
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) has defended himself against allegations by the Russian government.
This accuses German authorities of slowing down investigations into the case of the poisoned Russian opposition activist Alexej Navalny.
Maas said on the ARD program "Report from Berlin" that the Russian ambassador had already been told that Russia would approve a request for legal assistance.
"There's no reason at all not to agree to that."
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Sakharova, had previously said that Moscow was quite ready to work with Berlin on the case.
"The Berlin side must show operational action here," she said on TV station Rossija-24.
But she accused the German authorities of postponing the investigation.
Berlin did not respond to a request for legal assistance from the Russian public prosecutor's office on August 27.
Sakharova asked, "Where is this urgency that you insist on?"
She wrote on Facebook: "Berlin is delaying the investigation that it is calling for itself. On purpose?"
The prominent Russian opposition politician Navalny has been treated in the Berlin Charité since August 22, after he collapsed two days earlier during a flight in Russia.
The federal government announced on Wednesday that Navalny had been poisoned "beyond any doubt" with a chemical nerve agent from the so-called Novichok group.
The poison was developed by Soviet scientists in the 1970s.
Maas: "Another smoke candle"
Maas spoke on ARD of "another smoke candle, of which we have already seen some in the last few days. And I'm afraid there will be others in the next few days".
Investigations are currently still taking place at the Berlin Charité, where Navalny is being treated.
However, it was said quite clearly that if a formal request for legal assistance was submitted, "we will give all the consents necessary to exchange information in this request for legal assistance."
The Berlin judicial administration is examining such a request from the Russian authorities, as the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office announced.
Its approval will be decided after an examination and, if necessary, in consultation with the responsible federal authorities.
Russia should contribute to the education
Maas again called on Russia to help solve the case.
"If Russia does not contribute to the investigation or if more smoke candles like this are started, as has been the case for days, then that is another indication that something has to be hidden," said the SPD politician.
Reactions and consequences will have to be discussed at European level in the next few days.
If there are to be consequences, they would have to be "effective and targeted".
With a view to demands to stop the further construction of the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2, via which Russian gas is to be transported to Germany, Maas said there are still good reasons for the pipeline.
Over a hundred companies are involved, including half from Germany.
The Foreign Minister also emphasized, however, that he considered it wrong "to rule out from the outset that what is currently taking place could have any impact on this project at all".
(Read more about the battle for the last few meters of the pipeline here.)
The managing director of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy, Michael Harms, said in the ARD that there have been "absolutely reliable energy relations" with Russia for 50 years.
Even in the most difficult political phases, it was followed with good reason.
Harms said he "recommends that this time too".
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kko / dpa