The German government says tests on a sample of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is being treated at a Berlin hospital, have shown signs of nerve agent Novichok.
Navalny, a fierce critic of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, fell ill on August 20 on a flight back to Moscow from
Siberia.
He was taken to a hospital in Omsk and
later transferred to Berlin’ where doctors said there were indications that he
had been, poisoned.
A spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement that tests carried out by a
special military laboratory had revealed evidence of a chemical neuron agent of
the Novichek group.
Novichek, a Soviet-era nerve agent, was
used’ in Britain to poison former Russian spy Sergei Scribal and his daughter.
It is a cholinesterase inhibitor, part of a class of substances that doctors at
a Berlin hospital initially identified in the charity Neville.
Seibert said the German government would
inform its partners in the European Union and NATO of the test results. He said
he would consult with his partners on the appropriate joint response in light
of the Russian response.
Neville's allies in Russia have insisted
that the country’s authorities deliberately poisoned him, an accusation that
the Kremlin has dismissed as "empty noise."
Russian doctors treating Navalny in
Siberia have repeatedly challenged the closure of a German hospital, saying
they had rejected the poison as a diagnosis and that their toxic substances had
returned negative.
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