Navalny poisoning forces Merkel's party to ask: how do we hit back at Putin?

The strength of the German chancellor's condemnation of Russia was a surprise - and the multi-billion Nord Stream project could now be at risk

Germany is demanding answers from the Kremlin over the confirmed poisoning of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, but is struggling to find methods to extract them that don't involve a humiliating loss of face.

The assertive manner in which Angela Merkel announced on Wednesday that Navalny, who is lying in an induced coma in a Berlin hospital, had been targeted with a nerve agent from the novichok group raised eyebrows, and not just in the German capital.