- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny scoffed at Russian President Vladimir Putin for allegedly poisoning himself.
- “Good version. I think it is worth studying very carefully. ‘Novichok’ was cooked in the kitchen. The plane took a small sip from my flask. Fell into a coma,” Navalni said in an Instagram post.
- Navalny, Putin’s most famous opponent, was poisoned last month with nerve agent Novichok.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, his top opponent, Alexei Navalny, may have poisoned himself with a potentially deadly nerve agent, Novichok.
Navalny mocked Putin at the suggestion in an Instagram post.
“Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart: ‘The novel itself can swallow poison,'” the novel wrote in the caption.
“Good version. I think it deserves to be studied very carefully. ‘Novichok’ was cooked in the kitchen. Took a small sip from my flask on the plane. Fell into a coma,” he said.
The anti-corruption campaigner was released from a German hospital on Wednesday after a 32-day stay. Naval Si Gust fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. His aides immediately suspected he had been poisoned.
After receiving initial treatment at a Siberian hospital, Russian authorities initially barred Novichok from leaving the country. But Navalny was eventually transferred to a German hospital, where doctors found the nerve agent Novichok in his system.
Novichok is used to poison other Russian dissidents. Putin’s critics and opponents have been drinking poison regularly and some have been killed.
World leaders have demanded answers from Russia over the incident, but the Kremlin has denied any involvement. President Donald Trump faced his respective silence and TV on the matter and a general refusal to take a stand against the Russian government.
Navalny is one of Putin’s most prominent critics in Russia, and has been harassed by the Russian government for years. Despite this, and the recent poisoning that put him in a coma, Navalny’s aides have indicated that he plans to return to Russia.
