[ad_1]
Samples analyzed by laboratories in France and Sweden confirm that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the neurotoxin novitsjok.
A German military laboratory concluded early on that Navalny was poisoned by the Soviet-era military neurotoxin.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday that this is confirmed by tests that have been analyzed in France and Sweden.
Navalny became seriously ill during a visit to Siberia on August 20. He was first admitted to a hospital in Omsk, but doctors could not determine what was wrong with him.
Following international pressure, he was airlifted to the Charité Hospital in Berlin, where he has been hospitalized ever since.
OPCW Investigator
According to Seibert, Germany sent samples to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which will also carry out tests.
“Regardless of the OPCW investigations, three laboratories have in turn confirmed that it was demonstrably a neurotoxin from the novitsjok group that caused the Navalny poisoning,” says Seibert.
German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and other Western leaders have demanded that the Russian authorities “explain themselves” about it.
Kremlin refuses
The Kremlin leadership denies any knowledge of the poisoning of the notorious opposition politician and has requested proof that the novitiate was used.
– We are now consulting our European partners to find out what we are going to do next, says Seibert.
Navalny was in an artificial coma for a week in the Berlin hospital, but doctors said last week that his condition was better and that he is now communicating with the outside world.
It is unclear whether he sustained permanent injuries as a result of the poisoning.
