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In the past, Armin Laschet often surprised people with foreign policy assessments
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Armin Laschet's foreign policy assessments have been vague at times in the past.
The CDU politician once called for a reassessment of the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad during the war in Syria.
And about a solution to the conflict, the new party chairman wrote in a tweet in 2015 that such a solution was "only available with Russia".
Now the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister and possible candidate for chancellor of the Union has spoken about the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the imprisonment of the prominent Russian Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny.
He shared the German government's position on the project to bring Russian gas to Europe via Germany, he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The arrest of the Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny does nothing to change that.
Russia is "an opponent in many respects."
But there remained "important issues where we need Russia".
Navalny was arrested and imprisoned in Moscow on Sunday immediately after his return from Germany.
He had previously been treated in Berlin after a poison attack in Siberia in August, for which he blames the Kremlin.
Research by SPIEGEL, the research platform Bellingcat and other partners had suggested that at least eight agents from the Russian secret service FSB were involved in the planned killing.
Navalny later substantiated this with his own research.
He condemned the arrest "in the strongest possible way," said the CDU chief.
However, he is apparently not yet so sure about the masterminds of the poison attack.
»Russia must now arrest the perpetrators of the attack instead of arresting Mr Navalny.
I also expect his immediate release, "said the CDU chief.
The statement is reminiscent of Laschet's stance on the attack on former Russian agent Sergei Skripal, who is attributed to Russia.
At that time, too, the CDU politician had expressed doubts about the presentation of the British secret service that Skripal had been poisoned by Russian agents.
Laschet wants to clearly separate the Navalny case and Nord Stream 2
In addition, Laschet does not want the arrest of the opposition party to be mixed up with the dispute over Nord Stream 2.
The pipeline is an economic project.
“The fact that we get gas from Russia has been a reality for 50 years, and that was also the case during the Cold War.
And that will also be necessary in the foreseeable future, ”Laschet emphasized.
Elsewhere, on the other hand, the separation is less clear: most recently, because of the arrest of Nawalny, the EU Parliament announced that it wanted to call for a construction freeze on Nord Stream 2.
Critics of the pipeline fear, among other things, a weakening of alternative pipelines and traditional transit countries, such as Ukraine.
Proponents, on the other hand, argue that the additional gas pipeline to Germany increases energy security and ensures low energy prices - also in comparison to the more expensive liquid gas from the USA.
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