Former foreign minister and now EU lawmaker Radosław Sikorski has caused controversy after posting a tweet many perceived accused the US of sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline.
Sikorski was foreign minister from 2007 to 2014 and, as an MEP, is now part the EPP group in the European Parliament.
The controversial tweet includes a photo of gas coming out of the damaged Nord Stream pipeline, accompanied by the words “Thank You, USA”.
The tweet has attracted party-wide criticism, including from Sikorski’s colleagues from the Civic Platform (PO). The tweet was also criticised by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS).
“You cannot make such hypotheses, especially when you are a serious politician, a person about whom the public has no doubt that he has some knowledge,” PO lawmaker Borys Budka said on broadcaster Radio Plus. Sikorski “should think more about what he writes,” he added.
PO President Donald Tusk has a long talk about the situation with Sikorski, Budka also said.
Sikorski later explained his tweet with more tweets.
“The failure of Nord Stream narrows Putin’s room for manoeuvre. If he wants to resume gas supplies to Europe, he will have to talk to the countries controlling the Brotherhood and Yamal pipelines,” he wrote in one of them.
But Sikorski’s controversial tweet was also picked up by Russia.
“Sikorski tweeted his thanks to the United States for today’s incident on Russian gas pipelines. Is this an official statement about a terrorist attack?” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariia Zakharova commented on Telegram.
“I thank Radosław Sikorski for the information about who is behind this terrorist attack targeting civilian infrastructure,” wrote Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy representative to the UN.
It is being speculated that Sikorski’s controversial tweet could cost him the foreign minister seat if the opposition wins elections in the near future.
(Bartosz Sieniawski | EURACTIV.pl)
