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Photo: instagram.com/navalny
Navalny’s first photo since she lost consciousness on August 20
“The sampling, transportation and analysis were carried out according to very strict mechanisms,” said FOI department head Wasp Scott.
The Swedish Defense Research Institute (FOI), whose main branch is in northwest Stockholm, recounted how the samples were analyzed, from which laboratory experts concluded that opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with an agent nervous of the Novichok group. The details of the procedure were announced on Tuesday, September 15 by Dr. Osa Scott, head of the Department of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Protection and Safety.
“I can confirm that at FOI in Umeå (Västerbotten, northern Sweden. – Ed.) We carried out the analysis on the instructions of our German partners,” he said.
“Sampling, transportation and analysis were carried out according to very strict mechanisms, maintaining the continuity of the testing chain and in accordance with the procedures prescribed by FOI’s international laboratory accreditation,” Scott said. At the same time, the institute clarified that the “continuity of the chain” is important so that “no external factor can affect” the quality of the samples.
“Our analysis confirms the previous results in Germany,” said Osa Scott. Blood samples taken from Alexei Navalny “unequivocally contained nerve gas from the Novichok group,” he confirmed.
The FOI in Umeå is the only laboratory in Sweden dedicated to the analysis of the potential use of chemical weapons (CW). It is also internationally certified to verify compliance with the CW Convention. The Swedish Defense Research Institute clarified that the reaction of nerve gas with blood proteins and their binding, causing the toxic effect of the chemical, only allowed the use of blood samples in the laboratory “to check” if a particular person – in this case, Navalny – be exposed to its use.
“Novichok’s nerve poisons are extremely toxic,” Scott said in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel. “One drop can kill,” he added.
The Swedish Defense Research Institute is subordinate to the Kingdom Ministry of Defense. Experts from the institute participated in a 2013 UN investigation into the use of chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, and were able to confirm that the poisonous organophosphate chemical sarin was used there.
Previously in Germany, the presence of a Novichok group substance in Navalny samples was said to have been confirmed by three independent laboratories: in Germany, France and Sweden.
Recall that Navalny was hospitalized unconscious from a plane in Russia on August 20. He was later transferred to Berlin, where it was reported that he had been poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group.
Source: DW Russian Service
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