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In the case of Alexej Navalny, the German government spoke clear words to Moscow this week. However, in parts of the left and the AfD, one sees the Navalny case very differently, juggling questionable hypotheses.
This week, Bundeswehr experts provided unequivocal evidence that Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny was poisoned. While the federal government now poses “very serious questions” that only the Russian government can answer, parts of the left and the AfD are getting lost in wild theories. They consider that Vladimir Putin’s power apparatus is at least dubious.
For example, Gregor Gysi, the former leader of the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, had people sit down and take notes on Friday. At the MDR, the 72-year-old warned against a bias against the Russian president. “What kind of interest is Putin supposed to have in ordering something like this? He knows it will worsen relations with the West. He has enough sanctions on his neck. Putin would have to be especially stupid if he should have ordered that, and believe it so. so much I don’t. “
Instead, Gysi speculated on agents who might have gone insane, or spoke of forces trying to torpedo the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. “It could also be that this is an opponent of the pipeline to Germany. Or a commissioned opponent who knew: if he stages such a murder, which is then blamed on the government, it will make relations worse. ” You see: it really works. ”Gysi said that instead of threatening sanctions now, the Russian government should first have a chance to investigate.
The prominent left received the support of party colleague Sevim Dagdelen. At an election rally in Bochum, the Bundestag member speculated that the real objective of the poison attack on Navalny was to destroy German-Russian economic relations, the “Ruhrbarone” blog portal reported. Therefore, the German government asked Dagdelen to hold back and support the Russian judiciary in their investigations.
Other politicians on the left spoke more cautiously. The parliamentary group wanted the German reaction to the Navalny poisoning to depend on the behavior of Russia. “It is now up to the Russian side to find those responsible for this terrible act and bring them to justice,” MP Stefan Liebich said in Potsdam on Thursday. Talking about the consequences now is too fast.
Parallel to the Skripal case
Navalny fell into a coma in severe pain on a domestic flight in Russia more than two weeks ago. He was first treated in a Siberian hospital. After international pressure and at the insistence of his family, he was transferred to the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, where poisoning with the nerve agent Novitschok was detected.
Navalny, 44, is a vehement critic of the head of the Kremlin and, with his team, exposed numerous cases of corruption in the Russian power elite. His poisoning brings back memories of the attack on former Russian double agent Sergej Skripal in March 2018 in Salisbury, England. British investigations at the time found forensic evidence of involvement by Russian intelligence services. In previous years there were other cases in which politicians and journalists who had spoken out critical of Putin were poisoned.
Close ties to Kremlin networks
The fact that the Russian leaders had their finger in the game in the current case is denied not only by well-known left-wing politicians, but also by representatives of the AfD. “Whether the accusations against the Kremlin are plausible is at least doubtful,” said Maximilian Krah MEP.
The Berlin House of Representatives, Gunnar Lindemann, even suggested that Navalny had been poisoned “to find a reason to justify new sanctions against Russia.” as he wrote on facebook. Navalny is, therefore, an American straw man, paid by the Soros Foundation and the “Clinton-Obama Clan.”
It is not surprising that sectors of the left like the AfD now side with Putin. In the past there have been repeated indications of closer ties between representatives of both sides and the Russian state. AfD politicians visited the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea, which was annexed in violation of international law, several times, including Lindemann. Representatives from the left were also present. t-online informed on the connections between politicians of both parties and networks close to the Kremlin how On the dubious contacts in Russia of the AfD member of the Bundestag Markus Frohnmaier.
Trump: “We’ll take a look”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump reacted cautiously to the German findings in the Navalny case. Washington has yet to see evidence that the opposition is poisoned, but does not doubt Germany’s findings, Trump said at a news conference. “I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s tragic, terrible, we haven’t seen any evidence, but we will.”
Trump refrained from criticizing Moscow, instead emphasizing that he had a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia denies being involved in the Navalny poisoning. The country’s leadership repeatedly emphasized that its own laboratories could not determine any poisonings. There is no basis for indicting the Russian state in the case, a Kremlin spokesman said.
The Navalny case also sparked a debate about possible sanctions against Russia. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project in the Baltic Sea is a particular focus. There was a demand to abandon or at least suspend the project. In German politics, opinions differ on this.
