Russian authorities announced a preliminary probe into the sudden illness last week of opposition leader Alexey Navalny after Western leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel involved an investigation of the high-profile case.
The Interior Ministry called the probe a “pre-investigation
check” and repeated the Kremlin’s earlier assertion that no poison has been
found’ consistent with a press release Thursday from the Siberian
administrative district police, where Navalny fell sick. That comes despite
conclusions from doctors in Berlin, where he was appropriated’ the weekend for
treatment, that the activist was poisoned.
Navalny, 44, fell violently ill on a flight from the Siberian
city of Tomsk to Moscow last week. He’s been in an induced coma since then.
Doctors at Berlin’s Charity hospital said his condition is serious but stable.
They said he had been exposed’ to a cholinesterase inhibitor, a group that has
some nerve agents, though the precise compound hasn’t yet been, identified.
The Kremlin initially ignored Merkel’s involve a search, saying
there was nothing to research until the precise poison decided, fueling
tensions with Berlin. Officials within the U.S., U.K. and France also involved
an inquiry.
Russian President Putin relented Wednesday evening, telling
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that the Kremlin is curious about a
“thorough, objective investigation” of Navalny’s hospitalization, consistent
with a Kremlin statement. But he also warned against making “premature and
unfounded accusations” within the case.
The Interior Ministry said its officers in Omsk, where
Navalny was first hospitalized’ began the probe Aug. 20, the day he fell ill,
though it wasn’t publicly disclosed’ at that point, Interfax reported.
“Navalny’s status outside the system also means he cannot
calculate getting justice from the state, which views him as something
approaching a neoplastic cell,” Tatiana Stanovaya, a nonresident scholar at the
Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote. “A thorough investigation into his poisoning
isn't to be expected.”
On Thursday, German secretary of state Heiko Maas said the
episode is already hurting Russia’s relations with Europe.
“There are many who think that Russian authorities are behind
this poisoning attack. that's disputed by Moscow,” Maas said in an interview
with ZDF television. “One should therefore provide evidence that it’s not the
case.”
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