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Navalny is known in Russia for his anti-corruption fight
A great ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the European Union will lose credibility if it does not act to poison Russian dissident Alexei Navalin with a toxic substance.
Nobert Röttgen, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said Germany should now reconsider a major gas deal with Russia.
The Russian government was widely condemned after Germany announced that Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok toxin.
The Russian dissident is currently in a coma in a hospital in the German capital, Berlin.
Rutgen called on the European Union to respond firmly to the Navalny case. Novichuk is described as a highly dangerous toxic substance, produced in state laboratories.
“Here we are once again faced with the brutal actions of the regime (of Russian President Vladimir) Putin, which treats people with contempt,” Rutgen told German television (ARD).
He noted that Putin’s control extended to Syria, Libya and then Belarus, saying: “The question is will the silence of the Europeans continue? And if that is so, we will lose all our credibility, no one will take us seriously.”
Merkel previously said that Navalny was the target of an assassination attempt and that the whole world was waiting for responses from Russia, adding that the response would be “appropriate and common” from the European Union and NATO. “The Navalny poisoning is a violation of the fundamental values and rights to which we are bound,” he said.
The Kremlin objected to the German diagnosis, saying it had seen no German data on the Navalny case.
Doubts about the Russian gas deal
Rutgen warned that Germany would take a mortgage on Russia if it went ahead with the North Stream 2 project, a controversial 1,225-kilometer-long gas line owned by Russia’s Gazprom.
He also said that pursuing the project would encourage Putin to ignore Western protests over the Navalny case and other attacks on his opponents.
Rutgen is a strong candidate to succeed Merkel as German chancellor next year.
Last Tuesday, Merkel expressed her hope to complete the North Stream 2 deal.
And US President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on any company that helps Gazprom complete the project.
But his opponents question why he is keeping quiet about the Navalny poisoning case.
His electoral rival, Joe Biden, accused the Kremlin of carrying out a “rude and outrageous” attempt to kill Navalny. He added that Trump refused to confront Putin, describing him as a “wonderful person.”
Navalny was flown to Germany after he fell unconscious on a flight in Siberia on August 20.
His staff say he was poisoned on Putin’s orders, but the Kremlin has denied the accusations.
A team of German experts found evidence that “without question” proves that he had been exposed to the Novichok toxin.
Charity Hospital said Navalny’s recovery will take a long time and long-term side effects are not ruled out either. But she indicated that the gas enzyme blockage in her body was beginning to recede.
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Navalny was transferred to Germany for treatment.
On Wednesday, a Kremlin spokeswoman asked Germany to share information. Maria Zakarova described the allegations against Novichok as lacking in evidence, saying: “Where are the facts? Where is the evidence? We want at least some information.”
International outrage
A former Russian spy, Sergey Skripal, was poisoned with Novichok with his daughter in Britain in 2018. The two survived after treatment, but a British woman died in hospital after being exposed to the substance. Britain accused Russian military intelligence of the operation.
And 20 countries made a joint decision to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats and spies in response to the attack.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the latest operation as “outrageous”, saying: “The Russian government must now explain what happened to Navalny. We will work with our partners to ensure justice is served.”
The European Union called on the Russian government to carry out a transparent investigation and prosecute those involved in the process.
European Council President Charles Michel said: “I condemn in the strongest terms the attempt to silence the opposition leader Navalny using a military nerve agent.”
In a tweet, NATO Secretary General Jan Stoltenberg called for an investigation into the case.
The US National Security Council described the poisoning as a “reprehensible act.” “We will work with our partners and the international community to hold those responsible for this act in Russia accountable, wherever the evidence takes us, and we will restrict funding for their malicious activities,” he said.
