Altmaier says Germany not interested in anti-Russia sanctions

BERLIN, Feb 21 (PRIME) -- Germany is not interested in sanctions against Russia, they were adopted for political reasons and the countries should work on their change, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier said at a conference on Thursday.

“I personally think that we have no interest in sanctions,” Altmaier said. “We’ve adopted the sanctions because we had political reasons for this, we prolonged them many times, the E.U. was united, but we must work to change political relations to arrive at different solutions one time,” Altmaier said.

Altmaier also said that the Russian Nord Stream-2 project will contribute stability of gas supplies to Europe amid decreasing shipments from Norway and the U.K. and rising demand in Germany and Western Europe on the back of an energy sector reform.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Gazprom will implement the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, and France’s Engie.

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