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President Donald Trump said the United States must consider the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny “very seriously” but that his administration has yet to see any evidence.
“I think we have to look at it very seriously, if that’s the case,” he said, before speaking at length about his diplomatic efforts in North Korea and nuclear non-proliferation in Russia. “I don’t know exactly what happened. It is tragic. It’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any tests yet, but I’ll take a look.
“It’s interesting that everyone is always mentioning Russia … but I think probably China at this point is a nation that should be talking about much more than Russia.”
This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel revealed that tests in a military laboratory had “unequivocally identified” that the Kremlin critic had been poisoned with the nerve agent novichok and called the case an “attempted murder.”
On Friday, NATO condemned the attack as “horrific” and called for those responsible to be brought to justice. “Time and again we have seen critics of the [Vladimir Putin] regime attacked and threatened. Some have died, ”said spokesman Piers Cazelet.
Russia has so far not opened a criminal investigation and said there is no evidence of a crime yet. On Friday he continued to offer alternative theories of why Navalny fell ill two weeks ago, ranging from stress, diet, or a “simple lack of breakfast.”
Trump did not take as firm a stance as the State Department, which on Friday expressed grave concern over the finding that Navalny was poisoned.
At a meeting in Washington on Friday, Under Secretary of State Stephen Biegun told Russian Ambassador Anatoliy Antonov that Moscow’s use of this chemical weapon would be in clear violation of its obligations under the chemical weapons convention.
“The undersecretary urged Russia to fully cooperate with the international community’s investigation into this attack,” department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
Navalny is President Vladimir Putin’s most popular and prominent opponent, and the German announcement this week that he was poisoned by a nerve agent has raised the possibility of further Western sanctions against Moscow.
Reuters contributed to this report
