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A definitely unpleasant date for Géza Andreas von Geyr, the German ambassador to Russia. The diplomat was warned at a meeting in Moscow that the German government’s refusal to provide information in the Alexei Navalny case would be seen as a “hostile provocation” with consequences, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday.
Chancellor Sergei Lavrov told Berlin to delay the investigation. In its criticism of Moscow, the German side had an “absolutely unacceptable tone to spread its position in the world,” Lavrov said, according to Russian agencies. There are many questions for my German colleagues. But they showed an “absolutely inappropriate attitude” by not responding to official inquiries from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.
Germany had decided not to provide Moscow with the exact results of the Bundeswehr’s special laboratory for the time being. The federal government announced that it would try to clarify “how to proceed” and “all other issues” through the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Navalny, one of the fiercest opponents of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, passed out on August 20 on a domestic flight in Russia. At the urging of his family, after initial treatment in Siberia, he was transferred to the Charité in Berlin. After investigations in a special Bundeswehr laboratory, the federal government considers it proven that he was poisoned with a military nerve agent. Navalny supporters suspect that Moscow is behind the act. Russia denies being involved in the opposition case.
There are “unfounded accusations and ultimatums to the Russian leadership,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. This is a “discredit of our country in the international arena.” Russia demanded that the “hysteria” cease and Germany immediately “give an objective and complete response” to the request of the Russian Attorney General’s Office.
It was said in German embassy circles after the diplomatic meeting that Geyr had presented the “unequivocal position” of the federal government. “Mr. Navalny was the victim of a crime committed in Russia, verifiable with the nerve agent developed in Russia from the Novichok group.” Therefore, it is up to Russia to declare “this internationally prohibited use” of the neurotoxin. The ambassador also referred to statements from the EU, NATO, the G7 and other states, he said. The Navalny case is not a purely German-Russian affair.
