DISINFO: Navalny prevented Germany sending evidence to Russia
SUMMARY
Alexey Navalny prevented the German authorities from sending the results of his tests to Russia because he falsely accused Moscow of trying to poison him.
RESPONSE
This is part of a pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign on the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by trying to portray it as entirely unconnected to Russia and denying Russia's well-documented role in the use of Novichok.
It is not true that the German authorities did not find proof of Navalny's poisoning or that the Russian opposition leader prevented sending evidence of its poisoning. Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. Initially hospitalised in Omsk, at the request of his family he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin, where clinical findings indicated that he was poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. Subsequent toxicological tests provided unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny. This was backed up by the OPCW, where Russia is a member.
Germany's government handed transcripts of interviews with Alexei Navalny to Russia, as part of the Kremlin's probe into the poisoning of the activist, a Justice Ministry spokesman said on Saturday. The Kremlin had made previous requests for legal assistance, but Germany's government delayed the response, referring to Navalny's poor state of health, which kept him from being questioned. The activist was brought to Germany for treatment after the poisoning attack.
The ministry has demanded a thorough probe into Navalny's poisoning and made the interrogation protocols available to Russia's government. The Kremlin now has all the information needed to carry out a criminal investigation into the poisoning in August — including blood, clothing and tissue samples — the spokesman said.
Read also similar disinformation cases alleging that the Western intelligence agencies are working with Navalny, or that the West will falsely accuse Russia of poisoning Navalny, as with Skripal and Litvinenko.