There was a brief discussion on ARD news (public TV, Channel One) this morning.
Because of the toxic poisoning of Russian politician Alexej Navalny....Germany has openly discussed a halt to the laying of the pipeline....that would bring natural gas via a second pipeline to Germany.
The negative angle to this? If the Chancellor goes to the idea of halting the pipeline....the companies involved would put the weight of the situation upon German consumers of natural gas.
The amount? Well....four billion Euro. So it would be an adjustment to your natural gas bill.
On the Russian angle of this....one would imagine that they are openly betting that the pipeline won't be halted. Why would anyone go and put this 4-billion Euro burden over consumers for the action taken of one single Russian politician?
As one individual noted in this news item....it puts enormous burden on all future projects because a situation could develop and terminate a project at the halfway point....triggering a major crisis each time you do this.
General public commentary? It would seem that the majority of Germans do believe the ethical thing to do is support the poisoned Russian guy....which is a bit odd considering this is not the first such poisoning to occur, and appearing to be a regular event. The suggestion of Russia not being a reliable trade-partner? Well....that figures into this discussion as well.
In the end, I might speculate that a lot of talk will occur, and nothing much happens....with the pipeline finished (maybe a year late). If you went to German home-owners and said you were each paying another 400 Euro more each year....because of the cancellation over a single person being poisoned....it'd be a hard sell.
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