According to SPD Secretary General Kevin Kühnert, a permanent failure of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline would hit Germany much harder than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The federal government has done everything to ensure that there is “no longer any technical argument for the Russian side” not to put the pipeline back on the grid, including by providing the turbine previously serviced in Canada,” the SPD politician said on Tuesday Deutschlandfunk.
But no one would “want to put their hand in the fire for political forces associated with Vladimir Putin,” said Kühnert.
The big concern in Germany right now is that Russia will not turn on the gas tap on the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline after a scheduled maintenance that could be over by the end of this week.
The criticism from Ukraine for sticking to the pipeline is understandable, said Kühnert. However, the motto of the federal government still applies that the sanctions against Russia must hit Putin harder than Germany. It is now completely clear that the gas supply for Germany is no small matter, as some would have believed in March or April.
