DISINFO: Polish decision to fine Gazprom for the Nord Stream 2 is directly connected to Navalny case
SUMMARY
The astronomical fine in the amount of 29 billion Polish zlotys imposed on the Gazprom by the Polish anti-monopoly regulator UOKiK is incomprehensible not only to the Russian energy giant. There is no doubt that this event is directly connected to the new wave of deterioration of relations between Russia and the West on the background of the case of Alexei Navalny.
RESPONSE
There are no grounds for connecting the cause of Navalny’s poisoning with the construction of Nord Stream 2. A recent decision of the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) regarding Gazprom is not connected to the situation around Alexey Navalny, but to the refusal of Gazprom to cooperate with the Polish anti-monopoly investigation regarding Nord Stream 2. On October 3, the UOKiK presented its decision to fine Gazprom for 7.61 billion EUR for its failure to cooperate in the anti-trust investigation conducted in relation to the construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The UOKiK investigation regarding Nord Stream 2 has been taking place since 2015, long before Navalny’s poisoning. A prominent Russian opposition figure, Alexey Navalny fell ill during an internal flight in Russia and the plane had to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where doctors said he was in a coma and they were trying to save his life. Since then he has been transferred to Berlin and is receiving treatment at Berlin’s Charite Hospital. The German federal government said that toxicological tests provided “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group” in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny. The European Union condemned the poisoning of Alexei Navalny in the strongest possible terms. Read similar disinformation messages alleging that the West has an interest in the death of Navalny to launch a new wave of sanctions against Russia, that only traces of alcohol and caffeine were found in Navalny’s blood, that the West will falsely accuse Russia of poisoning Navalny, as with Skripal and Litvinenko or that US sends a message with Navalny poisoning: buy our LNG because we kill “only” black people.