Germany hands data on Navalny’s poisoning over to the OPCW

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.