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Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny has been treated in a Berlin hospital for about two weeks. Now doctors talk about his condition and provide details.
Russian Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny, who is being dealt with at the Berlin Charité, is doing better. Doctors ended the artificial coma. The Charité announced this on Monday in Berlin. The 44-year-old is now being gradually withdrawn from mechanical ventilation and reacting to speech. The long-term consequences of severe poisoning cannot be ruled out. The Navalny case has also sparked a discussion about halting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
The federal government considers the use of neurotoxins to be proven
Navalny fell into a coma on a flight over Russia on August 20 and was later transferred to Berlin Charité at the insistence of his family. Following investigations by a special Bundeswehr laboratory, the federal government had announced that it considered it to be proven beyond any doubt that Navalny had been poisoned with the military neurotoxin Novitschok.
Russia denies being involved in the opposition case. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov spoke again on Monday of “absurd attempts” to link the Russian government with him. Navalny uncovered several corruption scandals in his home country.
Request for legal assistance made in Germany
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had requested legal aid in Germany. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) said in the ARD that the German side would agree to this. According to Peskow, Moscow also sees no reason why Berlin should not cooperate in the case.
The Kremlin hopes that Germany will soon provide information on the poisoning of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny. In view of the waves that hit the issue, Moscow expects details of the case in the coming days, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to state agency Ria Novosti. “We are satisfied.” Internationally, there is mounting pressure on Russia to investigate the poisoning of the Kremlin critic. So far, “preliminary investigations” are ongoing.
“Final impartial decision”
According to the “Deutsches Ärzteblatt”, the Navalny case has also reached the German Medical Association. In a letter from the Russian National Medical Association to the German Medical Association (BÄK), the establishment of a joint commission will be proposed. Toxicologists from other countries could also participate to make a “final impartial decision” on whether or not Navalny was poisoned.
Meanwhile, it is also being discussed whether to stop or suspend the Nord Stream 2 project in response to the Navalny poisoning. The pipeline will be built across the Baltic Sea and will transport natural gas from Russia to Germany.
The German government leaves the future of the project open and increases pressure on Russia. It is still too early to decide whether the case will have consequences for the construction of the Baltic Sea pipeline, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) also believes that it is wrong to exclude something.
Government Spokesperson: Waiting for responses from Russia
Rather, it joins the warning words of Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) at the weekend. Maas had said in an interview: “I don’t expect the Russians to force us to change our position on Nord Stream 2.” He thinks it is wrong to rule out any effect on the pipeline from the start.
So far, the German government has strongly urged Russia to clarify, but has avoided a link to the European-Russian gas project. Seibert stressed that there was a clear expectation that Russia would answer serious questions about the Navalny case. However, this cannot be expected in a few days.
The Kremlin does not currently foresee a stop in the construction of the Baltic Sea gas pipeline. When asked if he saw any risk that construction was not finished, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov responded in Moscow: “No.” Moscow has always emphasized in the past that the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany was an economic project and not a political one. Work on the pipeline had been stopped for the last time in the last few meters due to US sanctions.
