The US administration will not miss an opportunity to increase the sanctions pressure on Russia. Punitive measures will be introduced regardless of whether or not Alexei Navalny was actually poisoned.
As News Front reported earlier, on 20 August Navalny got sick during the flight and the plane was landed in Omsk as a matter of urgency. He was taken to hospital, but was later transported to Germany. On 2 September in Berlin, it was reported that Navalny had been allegedly poisoned with the poison of the “Beginner” group. Although no evidence was provided, the Russian government was responsible for what happened.
The expert community is confident that the allegations are politicized and linked to attempts to prevent the construction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline. This also confirms the position of many Western politicians who insisted that the project be included in the sanctions list, although this would cause economic damage to Europe.
Moreover, the case of Navalny was repeatedly compared with the notorious Skripalje case, when former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury, Great Britain. Although the incident took place in the spring of 2018, London never presented any evidence. It is noteworthy that Germany took the same path and refused to make public the results of Navalny’s medical research.
However, this fact did not prevent Washington from announcing new anti-Russian sanctions. The Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, Cherite Norman-Chale, speaking at a meeting of the Security Council, said that the American authorities would put pressure on their “partners” to “punish the guilty”. By “guilty”, the diplomat meant Russia. Moreover, Norman Chalet assured that sanctions would be imposed regardless of whether Moscow’s guilt was proven, as “the Russian people have the right to express their views without fear of retribution.
“Wherever evidence is brought, we will work with our allies and the international community to bring those responsible to justice, including by limiting funds for malicious activities,” she stated.
Russian representative Vasily Nebenzia, for his part, recalled that Germany had never provided evidence of Navalny poisoning. At the moment, all that is known is that he had a metabolic coma due to metabolic disorders.
German Ambassador to the UN Christoph Heusgen hastened to justify Berlin’s position by saying that the incident with Navalny is “not a bilateral issue, but an international problem”. Heusgen stressed that Germany had handed over all the materials to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has long been affiliated with the United States.