All sanctions against Russia should be on table, Polish PM says
All sanctions against Russia should be on the table, including closing of both Nord Stream pipelines and stopping Russia's access to SWIFT, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said before a Saturday meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Morawiecki and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda met Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, in Berlin on Saturday to discuss sanctions on Russia.
"We need to shut down Nord Stream 1 and 2, finally become independent of Russian hydrocarbons... we cannot buy gas or coal from them," Morawiecki told a press briefing in Berlin before the meeting.
"I came to Berlin to shake the conscience of Germany so that they would finally decide on truly harsh sanctions that will influence the Kremlin's decisions," Morawiecki said and added that the sanctions package "must be crushing."
"We must cut off Russian financial institutions from financing on capital markets, confiscate the oligarchs' assets, close SWIFT for Russia," he said.
According to Morawiecki, "Putin's war machine" can only be stopped through "very strong and decisive sanctions, decisive action here and now."
"Unfortunately, the German Chancellor did not said whether he agrees with proposed sanctions," Piotr Mueller told the press conference after returning from Berlin. "He only said that all necessary sanctions should be imposed," added Mueller.
Mueller said that Polish prime minister and Lithuanian president gave Scholz a letter from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky which also included a list of sanctions. The press spokesman stressed that sanctions should be imposed on Russia "today or tomorrow".
According to Mueller, Bundestag (German parliament – PAP) could on Sunday decide on German stand on the sanctions. "I hope that German MPs will decide how it should be done," he added.
