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US President Donald Trump believes that the poison attack on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is still unproven. “We don’t have any evidence yet,” Trump said at a news conference in Washington on Friday, then added, “but I’ll look at it.” Germany had previously informed its NATO allies, including the United States, that Navalny had been exposed to a neurotoxin from the Novitschok group before falling into a coma.
Trump said at the press conference that he did not have precise information about the case. “I don’t know exactly what happened,” said the president of the United States. “I think it’s tragic, it’s terrible, it shouldn’t have happened.” According to Germany, it appears that Navalny was poisoned. “I would be very angry if that were the case,” added the US president.
Clear words from the EU
The German government announced Wednesday that Navalny had been poisoned “without a doubt” with a chemical nerve agent from the so-called Novichok group. The poison was developed by Soviet scientists in the 1970s.
Possible sanctions against Russia are already being discussed at the EU level. At a special NATO meeting on Friday, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for an “impartial” investigation into the case. All 30 NATO members “condemned the” terrible assassination attempt “of the Kremlin critic” in the strongest possible terms, “Stoltenberg said. The use of nerve agents is” a flagrant violation of international law “and requires” a response. international”.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) and his French colleague Jean-Yves Le Drian jointly asked Moscow to “immediately explain the course of the incident and the responsibilities for this attempted assassination of a member of the Russian opposition. “. The attack on Navalny was a “very serious violation of the fundamental principles of democracy and political pluralism.”
The control of nuclear weapons is more important than anything else.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, said nothing about the possible consequences, but emphasized that he was “much tougher on Russia than on anyone else.” At the same time, the president emphasized that the ongoing negotiations with Moscow on the control of nuclear weapons were more important than any other issue. “That’s the most important thing,” Trump said.
Navalny was airlifted from Russia to Berlin on August 22 with symptoms of poisoning, where he has since been treated at the Charité. Doctors at the Siberian hospital where Navalny was initially treated, according to their own statements and according to the Kremlin, found no poison in the body of the well-known critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In recent days, theories have been thrown about the Kremlin according to which Navalny in Berlin may have been poisoned by Germans or may have consumed poison himself. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the West’s remarks about a poison attack on Navalny should receive a “good dose of skepticism.” First, Berlin would have to comply with Russia’s request for legal assistance anyway.
