The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, admits that the situation with the alleged poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny could have been turned off by Western intelligence services, RIA Novosti reports.
“This cannot be ruled out”, – he said in an interview with reporters on Thursday.
On September 2, the German Cabinet of Ministers announced that specialists from the Bundeswehr laboratory had found out that Navalny had been “poisoned” by a substance from the Novichok group of toxic warfare agents. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called “depressing” information about the “attempt to poison” the oppositionist. The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov explained that Berlin did not inform Moscow about its conclusions about the “poisoning” of Navalny by “Novichok”, Russia does not have such data.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Russian side is waiting for a response from Germany to the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office on the situation around Navalny.
On Thursday, August 20, it became known that the plane on which Navalny flew from Tomsk to Moscow urgently landed in Omsk due to the fact that the public figure became ill during the flight. He was taken to the emergency hospital №1, the regional Ministry of Health confirmed that the patient is in intensive care.
The main working diagnosis made by Russian doctors to Navalny is a violation of carbohydrate balance and metabolism.
On Friday, August 21, doctors allowed Navalny’s transfer to Germany for treatment.
On Saturday, a private jet with Navalny and his wife Yulia flew from Omsk to Berlin. The Russian was taken to the Berlin clinic “Charite”. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Navalny flew to Germany in the status of “the chancellor’s guest”, which allows him to be provided with enhanced security.
On Monday, August 24, in the Berlin clinic “Charite”, where Navalny is located, they said that the Russian could have been poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. After the announcement of the first results, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on Russia to fully clarify what happened and punish the possible culprits.