Russian court rejects Navalny’s lawsuit over failure to investigate his August 2020 poisoning

A Moscow military court has rejected a lawsuit filed by Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (the FBK) against the Main Military Investigative Directorate (GVSU) over its refusal to open an investigation into his August 2020 poisoning. 

On Monday, March 22, Moscow’s 235th Garrison Military Court ruled that the GVSU’s decision not to investigate Navalny’s poisoning was legal. 

“Having listened to the opinions of the parties, the court found the GVSU’s decision legal and well-founded, and [that] the FBK’s complaint should not be addressed,” said judge Andrey Tolkachenko.

During the hearing, it emerged that the transport police in Siberia had also refused to launch a probe into the apparent attempt on Navalny’s life. According to the judge, a response to the court from transport police investigators in the Tomsk region stated that their department conducted a check following Navalny’s hospitalization and subsequently decided not to initiate a criminal case. “The complainant party, that is Navalny himself, was notified” of this decision, Judge Tolkachenko said.

Russian police officials launched a probe into Navalny’s poisoning immediately after he was hospitalized in Omsk in August 2020. So far, no results of the probe have been reported.

After Bellingcat and its investigative partners linked Navalny’s poisoning to a group of FSB agents in December 2020, regional deputies from several parts of Russia called on state investigators to launch a criminal case on charges of an attempt on the life of a public figure. 

Navalny is currently serving a 2.5-year sentence in a penal colony in the city of Pokrov, Vladimir region. This comes after a Moscow court incarcerated him under a reinstated sentence for allegedly violating parole while in Germany, where he spent nearly five months recovering following the August 2020 poisoning attack.