The world expresses outrage at Berlin’s announcement that Navaln was poisoned by Novičiok

Navaln, 44, became one of many critics of Russian refugees and President Vladimir Putin last month, poisoned or poisoned by suspicious circumstances. He is currently being treated in a Berlin hospital.

Medical tests conducted at the German Military Chemical Weapons Laboratory provided “clear evidence” that A. Navalnas had been exposed to combat nerve paralysis by the Novičiok group.

At the end of the Cold War in the Soviet Union, the nerve paralyzing substance Novičiok in Salisbury, UK, was poisoned in 2018 by former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. This substance belongs to the cholinesterase inhibitors.

The findings of the German military laboratory raised “very serious questions that only Russia can and must answer,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“There is no doubt that Alexei Navaln is the victim of a crime,” he said. “I wanted to silence him, and I condemn him with the harshest words possible.”

The news prompted European leaders to once again condemn Moscow for the event, which had already significantly increased tensions between Russia and the West.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Navaln poisoning was outrageous, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called it shocking and irresponsible.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has condemned what she called “contempt and cowardice”.

“Reuters” / “Scanpix” nuotr./Ursula von der Leyen

“The Russian people have the right to express their views peacefully without fear of any punishment, and certainly not [bausmių] chemicals, “wrote John Ullyot, spokesman for the US National Security Council.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg condemned Navaln’s “shocking” poisoning and called on Moscow to carry out a “thorough and transparent” investigation.

Dutch Foreign Minister Stefo Blok said he was surprised by the German report and asked Moscow to provide explanations.

“Chancellor Merkel’s statement that Navaln was poisoned with the Novičiok chemical weapon was shocking. I am in contact with Germany to take further action. We need explanations from Russia. Impunity is not allowed,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Italian Foreign Ministry and Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne also condemned the Navaln poisoning.

The news that the Russian opponent was poisoned with the same group material as Novičiok is so shocking that he is no longer surprised, said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda.

The condition is improving

Novičiok group materials can be used as ultrafine powders, liquids or vapors.

The substance is known to have been used in an attempt to poison the former double agent S. Skripal in the UK. The West believes the Kremlin ordered him killed, although Russia denies this.

Navaln, 44, one of President Putin’s biggest critics, felt ill on August 20 on a plane from Tomsk to Moscow and was taken to a hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing.

Navalno’s comrades say he may have been poisoned by something he had in his teacup at Tomsk airport.

On August 22 he was transferred to the Charite clinic in Berlin. Last week, doctors at the hospital said Navaln was likely poisoned with cholinesterase inhibitors, but said they did not know what the substance was.

In Siberia, Russian doctors who treated A. Navalns repeatedly challenged the findings of a German hospital and rejected the diagnosis of poisoning. They said their tests showed no traces of poison on Navaln’s body.

The Kremlin, which had previously questioned the credibility of German doctors, said Russia was ready to cooperate fully.

The Russian embassy in Berlin issued a statement in which it said: “We urge our partners to avoid any politicization of this incident and to rely only on credible facts, which we hope will be provided as soon as possible.”

Charite reported that the condition of Navaln, who has been a famous Russian opposition politician for about a decade, is improving.

However, the charismatic lawyer, educated at Yale University, continues to be treated in the intensive care unit, which is connected to an artificial lung ventilator.

Doctors say that over time, the body can cleanse itself of the aforementioned nerve paralyzing substance, which disrupts the connections between the brain, major organs, and muscles.

“Recovery is likely to take a long time,” the hospital said in a statement. “It is too early to assess the long-term consequences of this serious poisoning.”

Skripaliai, A. Litvinenka

Relations between the European Union and Russia are currently extremely poor, with Brussels and Moscow at odds on a number of issues, from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to alleged electoral interference.

The EU has been imposing sanctions on entire sectors of the Russian economy since 2014.

Two years ago, the Kremlin was also accused of trying to kill S. Skripalis at Novičioku in Salisbury. He and his daughter Julia were in a coma for many days, but eventually recovered, but Dawn Sturgess, a local resident, died after taking away a discarded perfume bottle that Novičiokas was supposedly filled with.

As a result of the Skripal poisoning, the United States, EU members, NATO and other countries have sent more than 150 Russian diplomats in coordination, and Moscow has taken appropriate countermeasures.

Navaln was poisoned after the shooting of a former commander of Chechen fighters on a day in the parks of Berlin last August. German prosecutors have accused Russia of ordering the murder of Zelimchan Changoshville, a 40-year-old Chechen citizen of Sacartwell who was shot twice in the head in Tyrgarten Park, Berlin.

Merkel also announced in May that Russia was carrying out attacks against hackers and that she had concrete evidence of these “heinous” attempts to spy.

To blame Russia for poisoning critics, toxic tea is not mentioned for the first time.

In late November 2006, Alexander Litvinenka, a former KGB agent and Kremlin critic, died a few weeks after drinking tea containing the radioactive polonium isotope Po-210 in a London hotel.

In January 2016, British investigators accused Moscow of poisoning. Moscow has denied the allegations.