Alexei Navalny, a Russian political opposition figure, fell ill on 20 August, during a Russian domestic air flight from Tomsk to Moscow. After initial treatment in Omsk, he was later transferred to the Charite hospital in Berlin, with Germany announcing after several days that he had been “poisoned” with a nerve agent of the Novichok group.
“We, the G7 foreign ministers, call on Russia to urgently and fully establish transparency on who is responsible for this abhorrent poisoning attack and, bearing in mind Russia’s commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to bring the perpetrators to justice,” a statement from top G7 diplomats read.
G7 foreign ministers, in the Tuesday statement, expressed condemnation of the incident involving Alexei Navalny that they described as a “confirmed poisoning”, despite the fact that no official data on the matter has been published by Germany, where the political figure is undergoing treatment. When Navalny received his initial treatment in Omsk, Russian doctors found no traces of poison.
Russia has repeatedly called on Germany to share available data on the matter, however Berlin has not done so.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova urged Berlin to “provide all the available data: both results of the Bundeswehr’s laboratory tests and the ‘evidence’ that the German Foreign Ministry has”.
A general view shows a sign of the Charite Mitte Hospital Complex near the facility, where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is receiving medical treatment, in Berlin, Germany August 22, 2020.
Navalny fell ill on 20 August, flying from the Russian city of Tomsk to Moscow, with the plane conducting an emergency landing in Omsk, where he received his initial medical treatment.
The Russian political opposition figure was taken to the Charite hospital in Berlin on 22 August. German doctors at first claimed they had found traces of a substance from a group of cholinesterase inhibitors in his system. Later, it was announced that Navalny had been “poisoned” by a nerve agent from the Novichok group.
Navalny was confirmed to be out of his medically induced coma on Monday, with Charite doctors stating he was responding to speech stimuli and was being weaned off of mechanical ventilation. Experts directly involved in the Novichok development said that the fact that he was taken out of the coma indicates that a nerve agent was not used against Navalny.
Berlin has called on Russia to “take action” regarding the alleged poisoning, amid calls to impose sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said last week that Germany’s position on possible sanctions will depend on how Moscow reacts to Navalny’s illness.
Russia has vehemently denied the claims that Navalny was poisoned, citing doctors in Omsk who did not find toxic substances in his body.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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