[ad_1]
THE FAMILY: Alexei Navalny with his wife Julia in Germany this week. Photo: Instagram by Alexei Navalny
The head of the Russian intelligence service believes that the recent statements by the opposition leader Alexei Navalny (44) are “stupid and Russophobic propaganda”.
– Nothing close to the truth can be expected from that man, Sergei Naryshkin, SVR foreign intelligence chief, tells the Tass news agency.
You are asked to comment on Navalny’s claim that Russian intelligence is behind the poisoning of the Kremlin critic, on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.
also read
Russian journalist set himself on fire outside police station – killed
The opposition politician has repeated this several times in recent days, including in an important interview with Russian youtuber Yuri Duda.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed this week that toxins with the same structure as Novitsjok have been found in samples from Navalny. Novitsjok is a series of neurotoxins developed in the Soviet Union and later in Russia. The substance must be lethal in very low concentrations.
“There is no point commenting on such stupid Russophobic propaganda,” Naryshkin told Tass.
Russian prosecutors have twice approached their German colleagues with questions that could shed light on this rather unpleasant story. The German side is silent. They’re silent, so they’re hiding something, thinks the spy chief.
also read
Confirms neurotoxin findings in Navalny’s body: – Serious concern
Navalny fell ill when he boarded a plane from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow. The pilots opted to stop at Omsk so Navalny could get medical help there.
Doctors at the Omsk hospital saved Navalny’s life and conducted the most accurate studies of his condition. And they found no toxic substances, says Naryshkin, who has been head of SVR since 2016.
– It is an indisputable fact that there were no toxic substances in his body when Navalny was in Russia, says the intelligence chief.
DUO: Sergei Naryshkin (right) with President Vladimir Putin during the celebration of Intelligence Officers’ Day in December 2019. Photo: ALEXEI DRUZHININ / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL / POOL / SPUTNIK POOL
– From the Russian side, we have received confirmation in the form of biological material from his body.
Naryshkin says the Russian intelligence services FSB and SVR have not been near Navalny after he was sent by ambulance plane from Omsk to Berlin.
also read
Navalny’s Moscow apartment will be confiscated
– On the other hand, it is obvious that there have been people from the services in other countries, says the Russian spy chief.
According to the New York Times, the OPCW’s analysis was a confirmation of findings that German, French and Swedish investigators had reached earlier conclusions, namely that Navalny was poisoned by the drug Novitsjok.
According to Tass, the Russian Interior Ministry, which corresponds to the police, has many questions for Navalny staff who were on the trip to Siberia, but they refuse to give explanations.
According to the Interior Ministry spokesman, they have also sent questions to three states, Germany, Sweden and France, requesting that they share information about the Navalny case.
Russian police have interviewed 230 people who may have information about what happened to Navalny while he was in Tomsk, Tass writes.
Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption organization demanded on Thursday that the police should launch an investigation into how chemical weapons may have gone astray in Russia.
