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The Russian laying ship "Fortuna" on Thursday, January 21, at anchorage in front of the Rostock seaport
Photo: Bernd Wüstneck / dpa
Data from the location services Vesselfinder and Marine Traffic showed a Russian ship association in Danish waters on the Baltic Sea on Sunday: the pipe-laying ship "Fortuna" and several ships that are supposed to support the work.
They were therefore around 15 nautical miles (around 28 kilometers) from the Danish island of Bornholm.
Nord Stream 2, which is largely financed by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom, is intended to significantly increase the potential for Russian gas deliveries to Germany.
The nine billion euro project has long been controversial in the EU.
The USA - which also want to export gas to Europe - reject it.
The United States recently imposed new sanctions on Russia.
The federal government continues to support the project.
The construction of the pipeline is almost complete and there is still work to be done in Danish waters.
At the beginning of December, work on the 1,200-kilometer pipeline through the Baltic Sea in German waters was resumed after being interrupted for almost a year due to US sanctions.
In Denmark's waters, construction work has been permitted again since January 15th.
First, however, the assumption of office of the new US President Joe Biden was awaited last Wednesday.
Shortly before, the government of Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, had informed the federal government that US sanctions would be imposed on the "Fortuna".
It is not known exactly when construction work will continue in Danish waters.
Critics of the pipeline fear, among other things, a weakening of alternative pipelines and traditional transit countries, such as Ukraine.
The arrest of the prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after his return to Russia caused additional criticism.
In a resolution on Thursday, the EU Parliament called for construction on the German-Russian pipeline project to be halted.
Poland for further sanctions against Russia
Poland's head of state Andrzej Duda spoke out in an interview published on Sunday in favor of further EU sanctions against Russia.
As a justification, he cited the tough crackdown by the Russian security forces against protests by Navalny's supporters: "If you want to enforce international law, the only option without guns, cannons and bombs is through sanctions," Duda told the Financial Times.
"Therefore we are ready to contribute to a consensus on this issue."
Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent from the Novitschok group in Russia in the summer and was subsequently treated in Berlin.
Immediately after his return to Russia, Navalny was arrested on Sunday and later sentenced to 30 days imprisonment for violating probation conditions.
In national protests against it, more than 3,500 people were arrested on Saturday.
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Löw / AFP
