By James Carstensen | February 10, 2021 | 9:30pm EST
A sign near the Nord Stream 2 pipeline landfall facility in northern Germany. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)
Berlin (CNSNews.com) – Germany continues to defend of its controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia amid allegations that its finance ministry offered a deal last year effectively to pay the U.S. to waive sanctions.
Meanwhile an attempt by Germany’s president to justify the project as a form of belated war repatriations to Russia went down badly in Ukraine, a country that stands to be significantly disadvantaged by the pipeline project which will double gas supplies from Russia to western Europe.
According to a document published by Environmental Action Germany (DUH) on February 9, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz offered the funds for the import of US liquefied natural gas in a personal letter .
A German environmental NGO claims Finance Minister Olaf Scholz offered to aid the import of liquid gas from the US if the Trump administration dropped threatened action against the Russian pipeline project.
SHARE
Germany may extend its lockdown into March to tackle the spread of a more contagious variant of the virus.
Any easing of restrictions at some schools or daycare centres will depend on local infection rates, German media reported on Saturday.
The highly infectious mutation first found in England has spread to 13 of the 16 federal states and is expected to become the dominant strain.
Germany’s infection rate per 100,000 people has fallen to 79.9, but health officials want a rate below 50 before lockdown restrictions can be lifted.
The bottleneck lies elsewhere
Ursula von der Leyen
“The situation is far from under control,” said Prof Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute.