Germany has handed over the laboratory test results of the samples taken from Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
At the same time, the German Defense Ministry noted that Berlin has no plans to share this data with Russia directly, since the Russian Federation is a OPCW member state.
In turn, the German government’s spokesperson, Martina Fietz, underscored that “Russia has the information that’s needed now, not Germany.”
Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny was on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow when he fell violently ill on August 20. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was hospitalized in a coma; two days later he was transferred to Germany for treatment. Tests conducted at a special laboratory run by the German military (the Bundeswehr) confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok-type substance. Berlin is demanding an explanation from the Russian authorities.
Moscow has reproached Berlin for its unwillingness to exchange information on Navalny’s case. On August 27, Russia’s Attorney General’s Office submitted a request to the relevant German authorities for data on Navalny’s poisoning, but according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Germany has yet to respond.
On September 7, the doctors treating Navalny in Berlin announced that his condition had improved and that he had been brought out of his induced coma.
Read more about Navalny’s poisoning
- Navalny was poisoned with a new type of Novichok nerve agent, German journalists report
- ‘A clear picture of poisoning’ The Kremlin continues to deny that Navalny was poisoned, but Russian doctors suspected it all along
- Germany is outraged over Alexey Navalny’s poisoning, but has no jurisdiction when it comes to his case
- ‘There are better poisons if you really want to kill someone’ The chemical weapons expert who led the OPCW’s mission to Salisbury after the Novichok attack on the Skripals explains Alexey Navalny’s situation