Alexei Navalny, 44, fell unwell after boarding a airplane in Siberia final month and is in a coma. (File)
Highlights
- Assessments confirmed Alexei Navalny was poisoned by Novichok chemical nerve agent
- Germany requested Russia to urgently present clarifications
- Assessments have been carried out by the German military with a hospital in Berlin
Berlin:
Assessments carried out on Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny confirmed that he was poisoned by a Novichok chemical nerve agent, the German authorities mentioned Wednesday, demanding explanations from Moscow.
“It’s a stunning occasion that Alexei Navalny has grow to be the sufferer of an assault with a chemical nerve agent in Russia,” mentioned authorities spokesman Steffen Seibert in a press release.
“The federal government condemns this assault within the strongest phrases. The Russian authorities is urgently requested to offer clarifications over the incident.”
Assessments carried out by the German military in session with the Charite hospital in Berlin, the place Navalny is being handled, had discovered “unequivocal proof of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok household,” Seibert mentioned.
Navalny, 44, fell unwell after boarding a airplane in Siberia final month. He was initially handled in a neighborhood hospital earlier than being flown to Berlin for therapy.
The Charite hospital has reported “some enchancment” in Navalny’s situation however he however stays in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator.
The case has drawn parallels with two suspected Kremlin-linked poisonings in Britain.
In 2006, President Vladimir Putin was blamed for the radiation poisoning dying of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko within the British capital.
In 2018, the Kremlin was additionally accused of being behind the tried homicide of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, southwest England, utilizing a Novichok nerve agent.
The German authorities mentioned it will inform NATO and EU companions over its findings and search a joint response on the case.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
