The German government has said that there is unequivocal evidence that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.
It was two weeks ago that Navalny fell ill during a flight in Russia, he was then later moved to Germany on the request of his family, who have accused the Russian state of being behind the poisoning. While the Russians at first stated that he was too ill to be moved from hospital in Russia, they later allowed Navalny to be flown to Germany where he has since been receiving treatment.
Navalny, 44, is an outspoken critic of the current Russian government and states that he is an anti-corruption activist. He is the leader of the 'Russia of the Future' political party which is pro-European and pro-liberal democracy. He and his organisation have organised protests against the current Russian government for over a decade and the Wall Street Journal labels him as 'the man Putin fears most'.
The German government said in a statement:
It is a startling event that Alexei Navalny was the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve agent in Russia. The federal government condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms. The Russian government is urged to provide an explanation on the incident.
Critics have accused the Russian government of using chemical warfare against opponents on a number of occasions. Notably, Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium in London and later died, as well as, the poison attack on the spy defector Serge Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England. In the Salisbury cases, Skripal and his daughter survived but two members of the public were also exposed, leading to the death of one woman.
As in the current case the agent used in the Salisbury attack was a Novichok type agent.
The Russian state has denied any wrongdoing and says that they were not involved in these events in any way. While there has been some evidence pointing towards Russian agents, and this is certainly the position of the UK and European governments, there has been no concrete indication that they were responsible, or if so, what particular branch of the Russian state directed the attack.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter:
It's outrageous that a chemical weapon was used against Alexey Navalny. We have seen first-hand the deadly consequences of Novichok in the UK. The Russian government must now explain what happened to Mr Navalny – we will work with international partners to ensure justice is done
It’s outrageous that a chemical weapon was used against Alexey Navalny. We have seen first-hand the deadly consequences of Novichok in the UK. The Russian government must now explain what happened to Mr Navalny – we will work with international partners to ensure justice is done.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 2, 2020
It is unclear how NATO and the EU will react to the current events especially due to the fact that Donald Trump has been somewhat less inclined to criticise Russia or the current Russian government.
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