* Nord Stream 2 will carry gas from Russia to Germany
* Pipeline is due to operate from early 2021
* United States opposes Nord Stream 2 project
* Merkel unwavering in commitment to the project
(Adds quotes from Uniper, Merkel, Kremlin)
By Madeline Chambers
BERLIN, Sept 3 (Reuters) - 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.
Moscow has denied involvement and said the West should not
leap to hasty conclusions.
Western countries have condemned the attack and many German
politicians want a tough response.
"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.
Late on Wednesday he had said completion of Nord Stream 2
"would be the maximum confirmation and encouragement for Putin
to continue this kind of politics".
Nord Stream 2 will double the capacity of the existing Nord
Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany.
Led by Russia's Gazprom with Western partners, the project
is more than 90% completed and scheduled to operate from early
2021, which could make it hard to stop.
The project has split the European Union, with some members
saying it will undermine the traditional gas transit state,
Ukraine and increase the bloc's energy reliance on Russia.
The United States, keen to increase liquefied natural gas
(LNG) sales to Europe, also opposes the pipeline and has
targeted some companies involved with sanctions.
It is not clear Merkel, who has been unwavering in her
support for the project, will bow to pressure.
Showing she was in no hurry to act, she said on Thursday any
response depended on Russia's behaviour.
She said last week the Navalny case should not be linked to
the pipeline, which is backed by Uniper, Wintershall DEA, Royal
Dutch Shell, Engie and OMV.
Many in Merkel's pro-business conservative party want it to
be finished.
A spokesman for Uniper, which has said it will lend up to
950 million euros to the project, said 2,300 km of the 2,460 km
of the twin pipelines that make up Nord Stream 2 had been laid
and Europe needed them.
"The pipeline and LNG infrastructure are both urgently
needed to ensure secure, flexible and low-cost gas supply in
Europe in the future," he said.
Former Social Democrat (SPD) Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a
friend of Putin and lobbyist for Russian energy firms, has been
involved with the pipeline.
Many in the SPD, which shares power with Merkel's
conservatives, also back it but the head of the SPD
parliamentary party said all options must be considered.
Prominent security analysts are also making the case for a
tough stance.
"If we want to send a clear message to Moscow with our
partners, then economic relations must be on the agenda and that
means the Nord Stream 2 project must not be left out," Wolfgang
Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference and a
former ambassador to Washington, said.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Seythal and Vera Eckert,
Editing by Gareth Jones, Timothy Heritage and Barbara Lewis)
