German authorities confirm that several items belonging to Navalny contained traces of a Novichok-type nerve agent

Other items belonging to Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny — in addition to the poisoned water bottle found in his Tomsk hotel room — contained traces of a Novichok-type nerve agent, German officials confirmed on Wednesday, November 25.

The confirmation came in response to a question from the right-wing party Alternative for Germany. The party asked whether or not any of Navalny’s other things had traces of a Novichok-type poison. The German government replied “yes” without providing any further details. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh told Mediazona that the German authorities did not inform them of any other items containing traces of a poisonous substance.

Alternative for Germany also asked a number of questions about the water bottle found in Navalny’s hotel room. The German government responded to most of these questions by saying that they didn’t have any information to provide.

The German government also recalled that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), as well as laboratories in France and Sweden, tested Navalny’s samples and confirmed that he had been poisoned with a Novichok-type nerve agent.

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. On September 2, German officials confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of nerve agents. Navalny was discharged from the hospital on September 23. Russia denies any involvement in the poisoning.

Navalny’s associates maintain that they collected a water bottle containing traces of a poisonous substance from the room at the Xander Hotel in Tomsk, where the Navalny stayed during a business trip to Siberia. They managed to pack the bottle and send it to Germany on the plane that medevaced Navalny to Berlin.

Navalny remains in Germany, but plans to return to Russia.