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MENA Observatory – Brussels
NATO called during an extraordinary meeting on Friday an international investigation into the poisoning of the Russian opposition, “Alexei Navalny”, a day after the leaders of the European Union threatened to impose new sanctions on Moscow, which flatly denied having targeted it. .
NATO Secretary General “Jens Stoltenberg” asked Russia to provide all information on Novichok, noting that “Moscow should provide the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with adequate information on this toxic substance.”
“Any use of chemical weapons reveals a total disregard for human lives and represents an unacceptable violation of international standards and norms,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference on Friday. Stressing that “NATO allies have agreed that there are serious questions that Russia must answer, and that the Russian government must cooperate fully with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in an impartial international investigation.”
Western leaders demanded clarification from Moscow after Berlin announced on Wednesday that there was “conclusive evidence” that it had been poisoned by the “Novichok” nerve gas that developed during the Cold War.
Merkel’s comments came before she announced the day before yesterday, Wednesday, that a special German army laboratory had come to a clear conclusion that “Alexei Navalny was the victim of a chemical nerve gas attack by the Novichok group,” noting that ” now there are very serious questions that only the Russian government can do. ” Answer and it should. “
to me. Furthermore, Stoltenberg stressed that “those responsible for this attack must be held accountable and brought to justice. We have repeatedly seen opposition leaders and critics of the Russian regime exposed to attacks and threats to their lives, and some have even been killed.
All 30 member states condemned the “heinous crime” of the attempt to kill the Russian dissident. Stoltenberg declined to speculate on a possible international response.
It is noteworthy that “Navalny” (44 years old), a lawyer who is among the most staunch critics of Russian President “Vladimir Putin”, suddenly fell ill and deteriorated in health when he was on a flight last month and was treated in a hospital in Siberia before their evacuation to Berlin.
The Russian chemist, Phil Mirzayanov, revealed the existence and use of Novichok in Russia in the early 1990s, after working for about thirty years at the State Research Institute for Chemistry and Organic Technologies and then moving to live in the United States. in 1995.
