German foreign minister says Navalny poisoning requires international reaction

The poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny requires an international reaction and must not be treated as a German-Russian conflict, Germany's foreign minister said when asked why sanctions proposals against Russia did not mention the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Russia has denied accusations by Navalny that it was involved in poisoning him in August.

The poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny requires an international reaction and must not be treated as a German-Russian conflict, Germany's foreign minister said when asked why sanctions proposals against Russia did not mention the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Paris and Berlin said on Wednesday they would propose European Union sanctions against Russian individuals after receiving no credible answers from Moscow over the Navalny poisoning with a nerve agent.

"For us it is important that these are not German-Russian consequences that we draw but that these are European ones," Heiko Maas said at the Globesec Tatra summit in Bratislava on Thursday, according to a translation into English. Russia has denied accusations by Navalny that it was involved in poisoning him in August.