18/09/2020 (Agence Europe) – In a resolution on the poisoning of Alexei Navalny adopted on Thursday 17 September (see EUROPE 12562/25), the European Parliament once again called for the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project to link Russia and Germany. In her State of the Union address on Wednesday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, criticised Russia's practices of poisoning and electoral interference, saying that “a pipeline is not going to make them change”. This statement could provide some ammunition for those who, in Germany in particular, are calling for the suspension, or even termination, of the construction of the gas pipeline (see EUROPE 12554/7). On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asked that Nord Stream 2, “a commercial project”, not be politicised by linking it to the Navalny affair. (DG)