Merkel won’t rule out halting pipeline over Navalny

In a sign of Berlin’s growing frustration over Moscow’s stonewalling over poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office indicated Monday that she might be willing to rethink fate of a German-Russian gas pipeline project.

Navalny, a fierce critic of Russian President Vlimir Putin, was flown to Germany on Aug. 22, two days after falling ill on a domestic flight in Russia. German chemical weapons experts say tests show Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve nt, prompting German government last week to demand that Russia investigate case.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview Sunday that Russian reaction could determine wher Germany changes its long-standing backing of rd Stream 2 pipeline.

“ chancellor also believes that it’s wrong to rule anything out,” Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters after being asked about Maas’ comments. Previously, Merkel h insisted on “decoupling” Navalny case from pipeline project, which U.S. strongly opposes.

In early August, three Republican senators threatened sanctions against a operator of a Baltic Sea port located in Merkel’s parliamentary constituency over its role as a staging post for ships involved in building rd Stream 2.

Germany anunced that samples taken from Navalny showed clear evidence he was poisoned with substances from vichok group. Seibert cautioned that it was premature to expect Moscow to respond to matter within a few days, but me clear Berlin wants answers soon.

“I can’t express a clear, time-limited expectation, except that we are certainly t talking about months or end of year,” he said.

Russia has denied that Kremlin was involved in poisoning Navalny and accused Germany failing to provide evidence it requested in late August.