Was What Happened to Alexey Navalny an Attempt to Undermine Nord Stream 2?

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is a key project the US wants undermined.

Its bipartisan policymakers want US liquified natural gas (LNG) to benefit at the expense of around 30% cheaper Russian gas, why Germany and other Western European countries highly value it.

When completed at end of 2020 or early 2021, the 745-mile-long pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea "will carry up to 1.942 trillion cubic feet of gas per year (about 55 billion cubic meters) from Russia to Germany through the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden," Sputnik News reported earlier.

US sanctions on the project are included in the current National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

It's not expected to be signed into law until December.

The sanctions target companies involved in Nord Stream 2 construction, as well as insurance and underwriting firms.

Senate NDAA legislation differs from the House version by sanctioning vessels involved in the project.

Both versions need to be reconciled before passed and signed into law by Trump.

Last month, hardline GOP Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Ron Johnson warned the German company involved in managing the port of Mukran where vessels involved in Nord Stream 2 construction are based that their officials face "crushing legal and economic sanctions," including visa bans and asset freezes, if continue their involvement in the pipeline's construction.

Russia is committed to complete the project. Germany highly values it.

Last week, Minister President of Bavaria Markus Soeder said the project is unrelated to what happened to Navalny.

Stressing its commercial importance, he said "(o)ne thing has nothing to do with the other, as we see it," adding: 

"Although it has to be said that the project may not be seen in positive light in this case."

Soeder's Christian Social Union is a sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.

At the same time, hardliners in her government oppose Nord Stream 2, wanting the project abandoned, what happened to Navalny giving them red meat to push for this objective.

So far, Berlin failed to provide Moscow with samples of Navalny's blood, urine, and perhaps tissues for comparison with comparable analysis by Russian toxicologists who found no toxins in his system — notably no deadly novichok nerve agent traces as dubiously claimed by Germany.

Merkel and key officials in her government are caught on the horns of very much wanting Nord Stream 2 completed v. heavy Trump regime, congressional, and some internal pressure to abandon the project in favor of much more expensive US LNG.

Merkel's Defense Minister  Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is militantly anti-Russia, falsely calling governance under Putin an "aggressive regime."

Claiming he poisoned Navalny is unsupported by evidence or a motive for wanting a figure with scant public support harmed.

Clearly his illness is detrimental to Russian interests, in no way beneficial.

Like their US counterparts, German establishment media unjustifiably blame Russia for what no evidence suggests it had anything to do with.

Unless and until a comparative analysis of Navalny's biological samples is undertaken and completed, no evidence exists that he was poisoned by any substance.

If foul play is discovered, it remains to be determined who's responsible.

Accusations are groundless without credible proof beyond a reasonable doubt as required by fair and impartial tribunals.

That standard does not exist at this time on the issue of what happened to Navalny.

Given his ties to US and other Western intelligence, harming him serves their interests against Russia.

The Navalny incident is reminiscent of what happened to Sergey and Yulia Skripal in March  2018 — an anti-Russia novichok poisoning hoax in the UK no evidence suggested the Kremlin had anything to do with to this day.

The same goes for Navalny. Falsely blaming the Kremlin for his condition ignores how he was rushed to an Omsk, Russia hospital after becoming seriously ill onboard a flight to Moscow.

Its doctors working heroically for two days saved him.

If Moscow wanted him eliminated, treatment could have been delayed or denied to let him die.

After Russian doctors brought him back from the brink and stabilized his condition, he was flown to Germany where he's hospitalized for treatment at Berlin's Charite clinic in a medically induced coma.

Blaming Russia for poisoning him flies in the face of the above facts.

A Final Comment

Russia's Valdai International Discussion Club chairman Andrey Bystritsky noted what he called "the assumed presumption of Moscow's guilt" when incidents like what happened to Navalny occur — calling false accusations against the Kremlin "the Western society pattern."

Instead of "sit(ting) down and figur(ing) things out logically" when these incidents occur, "(r)egretfully this does not happen."

Bystritsky called for the establishment of an international medical commission to determine what happened to Navalny.

It's highly unlikely because if a truly independent analysis of his condition is conducted, the novichok poisoning hoax would be revealed.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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