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The tests carried out on the leader of the Russian opposition Alexei Navalny provide clear proof that he was poisoned by a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok family, the German government revealed.
Now he demands explanations from Russia.
“It is a shocking fact that Alexei Navalny was the victim of an attack with a nerve chemical agent in Russia,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
Toxicology tests of blood samples carried out by the German army in consultation with the Charite hospital in Berlin, where Mr. Navalny is being treated, have found “unequivocal evidence” of Agent Novichok, he said.
Earlier this week, Germany urged Russia to intensify its efforts to investigate the apparent poisoning of Navalny, who remains in a coma. He is a well-known critic of Russian President Vladmir Putin.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a special address to French ambassadors in Paris that Europe needed “constructive” relations with Russia for the sake of the continent’s security, but it was now clear that “dark clouds” were gathering. on bilateral relations.
Navalny’s allies say he may have been poisoned by a cup of tea he drank at Tomsk airport in Siberia.
But the Russian doctors who treated the politician first said their tests found no toxic substances. The Kremlin has rejected international requests for investigation.
A Kremlin spokesman said Germany had not informed them that it believed Navalny had been poisoned with Novichok, according to the RIA news agency.
The case has drawn parallels to two alleged Kremlin-related poisonings in Britain.
In 2006, Russia was blamed for the radiation poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
In 2018, the Kremlin was also accused of being behind the attempted assassination of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, south-west England, using a Novichok nerve agent.
The German government said it will brief NATO and EU partners on its findings and seek a joint reaction on the case.
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