Alexei Navalny was medically evacuated to Germany in late August after falling ill on a plane.
Hague:
The world chemical weapons watchdog said on Tuesday that samples taken from Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who claims he was poisoned by the Kremlin, contained a Novichok-type nerve agent.
Findings from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirm similar results from a military laboratory in Germany, where Navalny was treated at a hospital, and laboratories in France and Sweden.
OPCW chief Fernando Arias “considered these results to be a matter of great concern,” the Hague-based watchdog said in a statement.
The OPCW said blood and urine samples taken from Navalny in Germany by the watchdog’s own experts contained signs of a “cholinesterase inhibitor,” a type of nerve agent.
The traces “have structural characteristics similar to those of toxic chemicals” found in two Novichok chemicals that were banned by the Hague-based body in 2019.
However, the specific type of Novichok found in the Navalny samples was not itself one of those included on the banned list last year, the OPCW added.
Germany had formally requested “technical assistance” from the OPCW, which member states have the right to do when they believe there has been a chemical weapons incident.
The head of the OPCW, Arias, added that “the use of chemical weapons by any person under any circumstance (is) reprehensible and totally contrary to the legal norms established by the international community.”
He said it was “important now” for (the OPCW member states) to “maintain the standard they decided to adhere to more than 25 years ago” when they signed the UN Chemical Weapons Convention.
Navalny was medically evacuated to Germany in late August after falling ill on a plane and spending several days in a Siberian hospital.
Tests by a German military laboratory found that it was poisoned with the Soviet-designed Novichok nerve agent.
Russia insists its medical tests found no poison in the Navalny system and has not accepted Germany’s statements, saying it requires further testing.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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