Russia’s Foreign Ministry lodges complaint with German Embassy over ‘unfounded allegations and ultimatums’ in connection with Navalny’s poisoning

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Germany’s Ambassador to Russia, Géza Andreas von Geyr, to its office on Wednesday, September 9, to “convey strong protests” in connection with the situation surrounding opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who is in intensive care in Berlin.

The Foreign Ministry’s statement says that it expressed protests “in connection with the Federal Government of Germany presenting unfounded allegations and ultimatums against Russia in the context of the illness and hospitalization of Russian citizen Alexey Navalny.”

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Berlin is using the situation with Navalny “as a pretext for discrediting our country in the international arena.”

The Foreign Ministry also says that Russia’s Attorney General’s Office officially asked Germany for medical information on Navalny on August 27, “including biomaterials, examination results, and test samples, for the purpose of their comprehensive study and verification by specialists.”

“The absence of the aforementioned materials will be regarded as a refusal from the [German] government to establish the truth within the framework of an objective investigation, and its previous and future actions in connection with Navalny [will be regarded] as a gross and hostile provocation against Russia, fraught with consequences for Russian-German relations, as well as a serious complication of the international situation,” the statement says.

Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny became violently ill on board a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where Navalny was admitted to a local hospital and put into an induced coma. The doctors in Omsk claimed that Navalny didn’t show signs of poisoning. 

Two days later, Navalny was medevaced to the Charité Hospital in Berlin for further treatment. On September 2, German officials, citing reports from doctors, confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of nerve agents. On September 7, the German doctors reported that Navalny had been brought out of his induced coma. The Russian authorities have continuously questioned the very fact of Navalny’s poisoning and deny any involvement in his illness.