[ad_1]
Moscow reinterprets the Navalny poisoning as a conspiracy against Russia. President Putin has yet to speak. Why should Navalny become a bigger problem for him than other murdered critics of the Kremlin?
The perpetrator was under the protection of the Kremlin – Russian President Putin has yet to comment.
Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev (Sputnik / Keystone)
Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent. There was an attack on his life before that. Berlin Findings little doubt. The results of the investigation now further narrow the pool of suspects. In a Novichok group neurotoxin Even in Russia, only someone with power and money, and with intelligence connections, enters.
Whoever it was, they are apparently under the protection of the Kremlin, whether they acted with their knowledge or not. The perpetrator or perpetrators are apparently important enough for the Russian leaders to defend them. Because the Kremlin is obviously not interested in clarification. Until now, he doesn’t even acknowledge that there was a crime. And if there was one, then it could be overseas, it is now rumored. In this context, it seems useless to ask for clarification. Moscow is never to blame, Moscow is always the victim of unfair accusations.
That’s the tenor of the reactions to the Novichok news on Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recalled that the patient had already been examined in Russia. He usually says “patient” as if he could turn Navalny into a non-person simply without ever saying his name. Before Navalny flew to Berlin, despite all the tests, “no toxic substances were detected” in Russia. It can also mean: if he was poisoned, it must have happened later.
Russia accuses Germany
The deputy of the Duma, Andrei Lugowoj, of the Tass news agency, said it more clearly: if Novichok was found, Navalny probably only contacted him in the Berlin Charité. Andrei Lugovoi was the main suspect in the 2006 murder of Sergei Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London. Today Lugovoi is part of the security committee of the State Duma. Alexej Kondratjew, head of international affairs at the Federation Council, believes that the Berlin doctors’ conclusions are politically motivated. The United States was probably behind this, he told the Ria news agency, to stop the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
These are just a few examples of the strong chorus of Russian officials who are reinterpreting the poison attack as a conspiracy against Russia.
This direction was given to you from the beginning. The State Duma’s security committee has been investigating since last week whether the West could have mixed the poison to discredit Russia. The committee must examine whether the whole thing was “an attempt by foreign states to harm the health of a Russian citizen to create tension within Russia and to form new accusations against our country,” said Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin. He suspects provocation by Germany and other EU countries.
Chancellor Sergei Lavrov also criticized the Berlin doctors a few days ago. When Navalny was still in the Omsk clinic, everyone wanted to know immediately why he had fallen into a coma. Navalny has been in Berlin for more than a week and German doctors have yet to share any information. “But no one floods them with statements or accuses them of trying to hide the truth,” Lavrov told the students.
On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Moscow criticized the German government for making “loud public statements” but not presenting any evidence. Both Lavrov and Peskov had previously explained why there could not be a criminal investigation: because you don’t know what happened to Navalny. Now they are also blaming the German authorities for this: Peskov said that the Moscow Attorney General’s Office had sent an official request, but that it had not been answered.
It will probably continue like this, it will be questioned, reinterpreted, the guilt will change. Perhaps at some point there will be a criminal case, a scapegoat will be found. When Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Mursa was poisoned, or activist Pyotr Versilov, were still under investigation. The Kremlin also refused to search for the people behind Boris Nemtsov’s murder.
Does Putin care about the warnings from Berlin?
Putin is responsible for the system in which his critics are assassinated and the perpetrators are not punished. He built it and nurtured it. Navalny was seen as someone who should not be touched without permission from above. Either that’s true, or the Kremlin has lost control, or someone thought it was doing Putin a favor. The president has yet to comment publicly on the case. It is quite possible that you consider it a triviality. He also never pronounces Navalny’s name.
That Angela Merkel really wants to talk about Navalny must be upsetting to him. But does Putin care about the warnings from Berlin? Not that the Russian president still has to fear for his reputation in Europe. You may wonder why Navalny should become a bigger problem for him than other Kremlin critics, murdered journalists and dissidents, than the war in Ukraine, the bombed hospitals in Syria, the cyberattack on the Bundestag. Putin has long believed that he can do whatever he wants without risking serious consequences.
At the same time, some things remain that are important to him, Nord Stream 2, for example. In some cases, international pressure continues to act. It is thanks to this pressure that Navalny is no longer in Omsk. And perhaps also that he is still alive.
