Navalny says nerve agent was found ‘in and on’ his body

Moscow, September 21

Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny demanded Monday that Russia return the garments he was carrying on the day he fell right into a coma in Siberia, calling it “a crucial piece of evidence” within the nerve agent poisoning he’s being handled for at a German hospital.

In a weblog submit Monday, Navalny stated the Novichok nerve agent was discovered “in and on” his physique, and stated the garments taken off him when he was hospitalised in Siberia a month in the past after collapsing on a Russian flight are “very important material evidence.”

“I demand that my clothes be carefully packed in a plastic bag and returned to me,” the 44-year-old politician and corruption investigator wrote.

Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic, fell unwell on a home flight to Moscow on August 20, was dropped at a hospital within the Siberian metropolis of Omsk and was transferred to Germany for therapy two days later.

A German army lab later decided that the Russian politician was poisoned with Novichok, the identical class of Soviet-era agent that Britain stated was utilized in 2018 on a former Russian spy and his daughter in England.

Navalny was stored in an induced coma for greater than every week whereas being handled with an antidote. Last week the hospital in Berlin reported taking him off the ventilator as his situation improved. Navalny has since posted a number of pictures of himself within the hospital, saying he’s recovering his verbal, psychological and bodily talents.

In an announcement Monday, Navalny blasted Russian authorities for not launching a prison probe into what occurred to him.

“There is no criminal case in Russia, there is a ‘preliminary inquiry regarding the fact of hospitalization.’ It looks as if I didn’t fall into a coma on a plane, but rather tripped in a supermarket and broke my leg,” Navalny wrote.

The Kremlin has repeatedly stated they see no grounds for a prison case, as Russian labs and the hospital in Omsk discovered no indications of poisoning. Other European labs have backed Germany’s stance that Navalny was poisoned with impartial exams of their very own.

Germany’s conclusion that Navalny had been poisoned has fueled tensions between Russia and the West. German Chancellor Angela Merkel known as Navalny’s poisoning an tried homicide, meant to silence Putin’s most distinguished foe.

Moscow has demanded that Germany present its proof and bristled on the urging of Merkel and different Western leaders to reply questions on what occurred to Navalny.

“There is too much absurdity in this case to take anyone at their word,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Friday.

Earlier this month, Merkel’s workplace indicated that she is perhaps keen to rethink the destiny of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that can convey Russian gasoline to Germany below the Baltic Sea — an indication of Berlin’s rising frustration over Moscow’s stonewalling concerning the Navalny case.

Other Western international locations joined Germany in calling for a full investigation, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling the usage of a chemical weapon “outrageous.”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has known as the poisoning “completely reprehensible,” including that the US was “working with our allies and the international community to hold those in Russia accountable.” — AP