kremlin critic alexi navalny is back in
court this time on charges of defaming a
world war ii veteran who appeared in a
government
video these are the latest pictures from
navalny inside of a courtroom in moscow
he was recently sentenced to several
years in jail for allegedly violating
his probation in germany
while he recovered from a poisoning
attack
navalny's arrest sparked street protests
across russia
eu leaders have called for his release
further straining ties between
the european union and russia
and on the story for us is dw's erin
tilton standing by in moscow erin what's
the latest
legal move here really about
well lexi navalny is looking uh well
he's actually answering to slander
charges
surrounding statements he made online in
the run-up
to last year's constitutional referendum
here in russia
that was a referendum which basically in
effect allowed vladimir putin to or
could potentially allow him to stay in
power
well into the 2030s now of course that's
something that alexi navalny opposed and
specifically regarding the comments he
made he was focusing on a video released
by russia today now that's russia's
state broadcaster
and in the video members of russian
society
raised their support and voiced their
support for this constitutional
referendum now alexei navalny
labeled them as traitors which resulted
in this landing
slander charges that he's facing today
now um of course this trial was
originally slated to take place
last year but navalny's poisoning with a
soviet-era nerve agent novochuck
and then his resulting recuperation in
germany prevented the trial from taking
place
now of course he returned to the country
earlier this year was arrested
and that's part of the reason that
prosecutors are now going ahead with
this slander case
erin any indications of a potential
verdict
well no of course we don't know exactly
how the court is likely
to rule but it bears saying that the
russian judiciary has never been
very sympathetic to alexei navalny in
the past now
if he were to be sentenced he could be
facing additional jail time or a fine or
something
akin to community service but at least
here in moscow it's not expected that he
will be facing
additional jail time specifically
because he is already looking down the
barrel
of a two to three year sentence on a
different fraud charge
instead if you talk to people around
lexi navalny's orbit
they say that there's a little bit of a
different motivation behind the slander
charges right now
they say that the kremlin is attempting
to hurt alexa's standing
in the court of public opinion you have
to remember world war ii veterans are
held up to a very very high standard in
high regard here in russia
so by accusing him of slandering one of
them it could be an attempt to harm his
standing with everyday russians
and at the same time his defense team is
still looking at avenues that they could
use to get him
out of jail long term and this ties them
up in court in a time when they could be
using those resources elsewhere
so of course the position of the russian
government is that these are serious
charges
but if you ask people surrounding team
navalny they say it's an attempt to
basically
harass them in in the court of law okay
aaron um
i i want to talk about on the diplomatic
level internationally because we have
this very dramatic
threat today from the foreign minister
of russia sergey lavrov saying that
moscow is ready to sever ties
with the european union just walk us
through the back story here
and what such a move could mean
well i mean on the face of it it's kind
of hard to take these
that threat seriously i mean you have to
remember the european union
is still the most important trading
partner to the russian federation
it's also the largest sort of source
rather of direct investment
within the country so it's hard to
imagine a scenario where
moscow and the eu could completely sever
ties and
to be absolutely honest i mean the um
the relationship has been leveled
and loaded with sanctions since the
crimea conflict and since the conflict
in ukraine and
they're still talking to each other
they're still working with each other so
it's it's
kind of hard to imagine a scenario where
they could completely break off ties and
you also have to look at the context
that these um
statements were made and it was made on
a live
stream of a russian journalist um
vladimir
leviov who is often considered to be one
of the kremlin's chief propagandists he
often
gives the kremlin um an avenue to help
shape the conversation
within the country so these statements
it does seem because they were taken
place in that live stream it seems they
were more intended towards domestic
consumption
as opposed to being some type of message
directly labeled at the european union
so i would say
well of course you have to take
statements like this seriously i would
say this is more a little bit of saber
rattling
intended for domestic consumption rather
than a threat directly at the eu
aaron tilton in moscow thank you
thank you well alexia navalny is also
the focus of a growing diplomatic crisis
between the eu and russia that we've
just been hearing about from aaron
moscow says that it's ready to cut ties
with brussels if the eu goes ahead with
harsh economic sanctions
one possible target is a nearly
completed gas pipeline between russia
and germany some people say that linking
these projects
to human rights concerns is a really bad
idea have a look
the north stream 2 is ready at least the
german end of the nearly 2 500 kilometer
long pipeline
it starts here in the baltic sea town of
lupmin
the receiving terminal with its thick
pipes and heavy safety valves
has been ready to go since the summer
loopman's mayor axel foucht is concerned
that despite this
the russian gas pipeline might never be
operational
it would give us a very bad public image
if we had an investment disaster of this
magnitude
and the political debate continued to be
so heated i suspect that would also
scare off investors we'd like to keep
this 150 kilometers of pipeline has
become a hot topic
the section has yet to be completed on
the bottom of the baltic sea
but calls for tougher sanctions against
russia are getting louder
after the reported poisoning of
opposition politician alexey navalny
many demanded a halt to the construction
of the north stream too
local authorities refused to believe
that construction might be stopped
can you really link the case of navalny
to a project like nordstrom 2.
wouldn't it be better to look at these
two events separately
especially when the facts at least
according to my assessment
are not yet clear enough to place the
blame on russian government
the mayor is voicing the opinion of the
citizens of lupmin
a seaside resort on the baltic sea
because of the coronavirus there aren't
enough tourists
but there are also very few locals on
the beach their opinion is almost
unanimous
people think everything the russians do
is bad that's not right
navalny is unimportant nordstrom is
important
can we afford to waste millions billions
compromises have to be made
i think it must be completed
only one person dares to criticize
russia
they were historically a reliable
partner as long as it benefited them
for political reasons i would not
continue this project
for folk all that matters is a
consistent supply of energy
after germany's nuclear phase-out gas
will become essential he says
even if it comes from russia we find
russia
including vladimir putin to be a
reliable partner
in social and economic life in the state
of mecklenburg western pomerania
and especially here at our energy and
business site
i see no reason for putin or the russian
government to be sidelined
lupmin expects russian natural gas to
flow through these pipes
soon so as we've been hearing there some
in the region are very much
pro-nordstrom too let's hear from
somebody
who thinks that the project should be
canceled we are joined now by agnes
brugra
she is a member of the german parliament
for the opposition green party and she
sits on the blindest tugs defense
committee welcome to the program
and thank you for joining us as we've
been hearing there
supporters of this project say it's an
economic it's not a political project it
should not be used as political leverage
what is your view
i think building this pipeline was
wrong all along and there are many
reasons
why this is so and it's never too late
to fix a mistake and
i think the most important reason um is
um that we have to take our own climate
goals
seriously and this is why the green
party has been opposed
from the beginning to north stream too
but there is of course a link
to the attempted murder attack on
navalny
because the german government should
send a very clear message
um to putin and to the kremlin that we
will not
um uh let this
unanswered and this would be a decision
that would hurt i want to get your
opinion
um on a counter argument now and here's
the german foreign minister speaking
in parliament earlier this week let's
have a listen but we are not streamed
swipe
anyone who fundamentally questions the
nord stream 2 pipeline
and you can certainly advocate that
opinion must also consider
at least geostrategically what
consequences that will have
it will drive russia and china closer
and closer together
and it will create the largest economic
military alliance there is
and i don't think that should be the
strategy of the west in this dispute
and that's why i'm against burning all
bridges to russia in this context
so when you put it in the broader
geostrategic picture as we're seeing
there does the foreign minister have a
point
i don't think so um because first we
have to take our climate goals seriously
and
when we do that we see that the time of
this mega fossil fuel project is over we
have
already over capacity in our
infrastructure so we
really don't need it and it's bad for
the climate
but at the other hand we see when the
when a foreign minister says this is the
only good
uh link we have with president putin
we have to cooperate in questions of
energy
we can cooperate on renewable energies
and
i think the time is up for
only concerned words we have to send
a very clear message to the kremlin
and not only take some political um
answers
okay so your position is clear so then
let me ask you um you know what the next
step would be
if that indeed was carried out because
the back and forth about nordstrom 2
also of course has economic financial
implications there are private companies
involved here
the project costs some 10 billion euros
who should answer for the losses
if the project is indeed killed
um it's not not um
really clear how to get out of this
project we don't have the contracts and
the german government does not answer
many questions about it um the first
step would be
to withdraw the political support of the
coalition and i think it's the most
important one
if you want to stop that project and
then you have to look
for a good way out you have to look at
the contracts and there are still
some issues some legal issues
about environmental impact assessments
from the european side or
also about competition so
there are maybe many ways which
could lead to a to an end of this
project
agnes berger member of the german
parliament for the opposition green
party thank you
you