Germany pressed to rethink Nord Stream 2 pipeline after Navalny poisoning

Pressure mounted on German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday to reconsider the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will take gas from Russia to Germany, after she said Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had been poisoned with a Soviet-style nerve agent. Merkel said on Wednesday that Navalny, who is being treated in a Berlin hospital, was the victim of a murder attempt using the nerve agent Novichok, and demanded an explanation by Russia. "We must pursue hard politics, we must respond with the only language (Russian President Vladimir) Putin understands - that is gas sales," Norbert Roettgen, the conservative head of Germany's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said on Thursday.