RT (Russia Today), an international television network, made a live talk with Dr. Maximilian Krah (MEP) concerning North Stream 2 and Alexie Navalny last week.
Hots: “Let’s go live now to Maximilian Krah, a member of the European parliament for Germany. Sir, thanks for joining us, good to have you on the program today. So the resolution is passed, it’s not unanimous but fairly obvious the majority of opinion there is certainly to take some form of action against Russia. It’s a non-bingding resolution. Do you expect any further steps to be taken against Moscow here?”
Krah: ”No, I don’t. I don’t expect it because the European council has now to decide, and there are the governments in, and I think they are a little bit more reliable than the majority of my colleagues here. So it’s just a statement, and it reflects the entire Russian atmosphere that the majority holds in this parliament.”
Host: “Europe wants Russia to investigate the case and to share the results with the international community but Russia still doesn’t have the evidence on the poisoning from the German side here, despite more than one request here. Why do you think nobody’s listening to Moscow’s request to provide this evidence?”
Krah: ”Look, we don’t have the evidence either. No one of the members of parliament who today are voted in favor of sanctions has seen any evidence, so what we learn is that in politics, sometimes you don’t need evidence, you just need a little bit momentum. I have no clue why the evidence is not shared, so rumors say because the laboratory doesn’t want to tell the Russians how detailed they are able to analyze, but I’m not a chemist, I don’t think that is very convincing. So no one has evidence, neither the U.S. president. We have evidence here, but for a campaign or for a political wave. You don’t need that evidence, at least not in the European parliament. So i don’t expect that you get that evidence, but the same people who say we don’t give you the evidence will tell you we have. We expect from Russia to investigate. That’s part of the game.“
Host: “Russia earlier asked the EU not to politicize this Nevada case, but given the high profile nature of what’s happened, given the previous case with the screw power poisoning. Do you think it was ever realistic for this case not to be politicized?”
Krah: “It was not realistic. It was absolutely clear that this is another chance to push the entire Russian agenda. I followed that debate, especially concerning North Stream 2. In the European, American parliamentary, delegations are for a month, and always, when we ask the US ambassador why they do illegal third party sanctions, the answer is always the same. Our government will do everything it can to stop that project, and if you have a clear goal to stop a project then you take every possibility you get to do so, and of course, that unclear incident that occurred with Mr. Navalny is such an opportunity to push the agenda. So it was clear from the beginning that this chance would be used, so we as the supporters of North Stream 2, I try our best now to stop that wave and to get the project done.”
Host: “There’s no unanimous approach. The condemnation of what happened to Navalny may seem to be more unanimous. North Stream 2, there are some countries that are actively calling for the project to be scrapped or at least put on hold others as yourself that are taking the opposite side. How much do you think that project is actually at risk of being put on hold as a result of what’s happened?”
Krah: “I mean first, the project is always on risk and it will be on risk until it is finalized and that’s the first thing. So the project has two political implications. The first is it is competitive against the U.S. fracking gas and it is also competitive against exsiting pipelines through the Ukraine and through Poland. So if once North Stream 2 is working then of course, the business with transit fees which is a good business for both Poland and Ukraine is not so good anymore, and for the U.S. the same. They want to export their less ecological and less cheap francking gas, so we have an economoc interest against it. And the other part is linking Germany and Russia economically in terms of energy makes Germany more independent from American influence. It strengthens the Eurasia corporation that is something that everyone who dreams about the American empire on both sides of the Altantic cannot wish. So a good business project between Germany and Russia is always a threat to those who don’t want to have stronger ties between Germany and Russia. So we will see that project gets done. There is only 120 kilometres to be built and I’m quite optimistic that we can finalize it by the end of this year or early 2021 but it is really tough and I would say I had a 90% certainty to get it done two months ago, and now let’s say a 65% certainty but I’m still optimistic.”
Host: “Just going back to the question of evidence and results. The OPCW says those results of the analysis will be provided to Berlin shortly. Nothing mentioned about providing the results to Russia to let them carry out their investgation although the resolution actually calls for the evidence to be provided to Russia. What do you think the next stage in the process is going to be? Do you think the evidence will be made public? Do you think it will be provided to Russia? Where do we go from here?“
Krah: “What I expect is that it is only get published and provided to Russia if there is public pressure, especially in Germany. But in the whole of the European Union, the public doesn’t demand transparency and doesn’t demand to cooperate with Russia in investigation, then no one will share it. But if the public says okay we don’t play that silly game any longer, we are not ready to accept anti-russian sanctions without ever having seen evidence, then of course, the pressure will increase and it will be shared, or we will never hear anything from that anymore if the the evidence is weak. But today we have the unpleasant situation that the public believes what the German govegovernnt states and as long as the public remains in the truth in that confidence they won’t share. That is what I expect. So everything what happens will only happen when there is an increasing pressure and we need public pressure. I mean that’s why I’m here and bring that statement, even to make more people aware that we talk about just the suspicion that we don’t have facts, we don’t hace evidence, and I can only ask everyone to demand evidence and then we will see further. Without that demand of evidence, without public pressure I don’t think that the results will be shared.”
(Source: RT Producers)
