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AOn Friday, Russian state media again called a doctor to cast doubt on the poisoning of the opposition Alexej Navalnyj with the war agent Novichok who had been found in Germany. A toxicologist at the Omsk hospital, where Navalnyj was first treated, spoke of “digestive problems” as part of a “diet” and of metabolic changes that had started “the night before, a few hours, I would say even a few days before the entry”.
No toxins were found in Navalnyj: “The situation could have been caused by stress, overexertion, alcohol, heat or cold,” he said, “even by the banal lack of breakfast.” In this sense, the appeal of President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman was to be understood as “based on facts” in the case of the “Berlin patient”, as Dmitrij Peskov now describes the never-named Navalnyj.
“Provocations” and “Russophobic Fantasies”
There are no criminal investigations yet, but there is a political investigation: shortly after the Charité learned that Navalnyj had been poisoned with a cholinesterase inhibitor, the President of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, announced that the anti-corruption and security committee of the lower house “would analyze what was happening.”
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At the same time, Volodin set the course: it could be “a provocation by Germany and other EU countries to direct new accusations against our country.” A member of the Duma committee, who is supposed to investigate the incident, went further: if Novitschok had been found, Navalnyj in Berlin “was probably presented to this clinic” to damage relations between Germany and Russia. Thus spoke Andrei Lugovoi, 53 years old and since 2007 a member of the Duma of the pseudo-opposition “Liberal Democrats”.
He’s an old friend with a double message. If the killings or attacks are related to Russia, Lugovoi is there. When the Federal Attorney General took over the investigation of Georgian Selimchan Changoshvili, who was shot in Berlin last December and viewed Russian “government agencies” as a client, Lugovoi spoke of “fantasies.” A media search after the Russian military intelligence agency GRU poisoned a Bulgarian businessman with Novichok in 2015 described Lugovoi as an “absurd but coordinated action” to “compromise” the Russian secret services.
Similarly, he commented on the poisoning of double agent Sergej Skripal in England in 2018, who was also charged by the GRU, true to the Moscow line of dismissing all charges as “provocation” and “Russophobia”: “The British suffer from phobias.” . At the same time, Lugowoj convincingly embodies that like no other. Putin’s 2010 phrase “traitors always end badly” is not an empty phrase: Britain sees Lugovoi, who has experience in the secret service, as one who, with an accomplice, poured radioactive polonium-210 into the agent’s tea Russian renegade Alexandr Litvinenko in 2006 in London. The “traitor” died in agony. Lugowoj has denied his involvement, but uses reputation, which was precisely justified by the British investigators. For example, he presented the corresponding destinations in the television series “Traitors” on the Ministry of Defense channel.
The widow Marina Litvinenko described as “cynicism at the highest level” that Lugovoi is now investigating the attack on Navalnyj. But Lugovoi, whom Navalnyj described as the “best assassin” of the secret services, is a credit to the power apparatus. To the outside world, it sends the signal that Putin’s enemies will die without expiation for the deeds. Because, of course, Lugovoi is not extradited or prosecuted, but honored by the state. On the inside, the successful MP shows how loyalty pays off.
Lugowoj and a rude joking friend are sporting, which in Russia is called “toll”. In June 2018, for example, Lugovoy played for the Duma football team against the “FC Bundestag” that had traveled to Moscow. The suspected killer wore the number 18 jersey, taunting German guests twice over far-right number symbols. But when asked, they didn’t even know who was playing them in the “friendly.”
