Russia says Navalny poisoning allegations meant to promote new sanctions on Moscow

Russia says prevalent allegations that Moscow poisoned opposition figure Alexei Navalny are a “disinformation campaign” to help promote new sanctions against the country.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the “ongoing massive disinformation campaign” was aimed at “mobilizing sanctions sentiment.”

The ministry reiterated that Moscow had nothing to do with Navalny’s purported health condition.

Navalny, 44, was taken ill on a domestic flight on August 20. He was later transported to the German capital, Berlin, where he was said to have been poisoned. His aides had already claimed that a cup of tea that he had drunk before the flight had been poisoned, blaming Moscow.

But doctors at a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk where he was initially admitted to said they had found no traces of poisoning in his blood or tissue samples.

German doctors at Berlin’s Charite Hospital claimed Navalny had been poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors.

Western governments have since been attacking Russia with accusations that it poisoned Navalny.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said there is “unequivocal evidence” that Navalny has been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent and that she will consult NATO allies about how to respond. No such evidence has been produced.

Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in any attack on Navalny and has asked for his medical record for a review. Germany has refused to submit that information.

In its Wednesday statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry once again urged Germany to share Navalny’s medical information.

The ministry said that the lack of access to the information prevented Russia’s law enforcement agencies from establishing what happened after the opposition figure collapsed on the domestic Russian flight.

Meanwhile, Charite Hospital says Navalny has come out of coma and is responding to verbal stimuli, less than a week after Berlin claimed he had been poisoned with the lethal nerve agent.

Germany: Navalny out of coma, responding to verbal stimuli

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny comes out of a medically-induced coma, says the German hospital where he is being treated, less than a week after Berlin claimed he had been poisoned with a lethal nerve agent.

G7 demands ‘urgent’ Russian investigation

Separately, the Group of Seven (G7) called on Russia to “urgently” investigate what it described as the “confirmed poisoning” of Navalny.

“Any use of chemical weapons, anywhere, anytime, by anybody, under any circumstances whatsoever, is unacceptable and contravenes the international norms prohibiting the use of such weapons,” G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

“We, the G7 foreign ministers, call on Russia to urgently and fully establish transparency on who is responsible for this abhorrent poisoning attack and, bearing in mind Russia’s commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to bring the perpetrators to justice,” the statement added.

The group further warned that it would “monitor closely how Russia responds to international calls for an explanation of the hideous poisoning,” while stopping short of openly linking the incident to Moscow.

Russia calls on PACE to rely on verified facts in Navalny’s case

Also on Tuesday, Russia called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to rely only on verified facts in relation to Navalny’s case.

“The PACE Political Affairs and Democracy Committee has just finished the discussion of the situation around blogger Alexei Navalny. Regrettably, I have to say that this matter was politicized even in the virtual format,” Chairman of the Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said on Tuesday after a meeting of the committee.

“We had to explain at the elementary level essential things: what is going on around Navalny now is pure provocation. It is proved by carbon-copy anti-Russian statements made on the background of seesawing of the German government about the future of the Nord Stream-2 project and US President Donald Trump’s open demands [that] works on this project be stopped completely,” Slutsky said.

Russia: Germany stalling Navalny probe ‘on purpose'

Moscow says Germany has failed to provide Russian prosecutors with Alexi Navalny’s medical records.

UN rights chief urges Russia to investigate Navalny’s case

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has also called on Russia to conduct, or cooperate with, a full independent investigation into Germany’s assertions that Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.

“It is not good enough to simply deny he was poisoned, and deny the need for a thorough, independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into this assassination attempt,” Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is incumbent on the Russian authorities to fully investigate who was responsible for this crime — a very serious crime that was committed on Russian soil,” she said.

In response to Bachelet’s remarks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the UN rights chief’s comments were based on unverified information and constituted yet another unsubstantiated allegation.

Russia denounces as ‘absurd’ attempts to link Moscow with Navalny’s alleged poisoning

The outspoken critic was first transferred to a hospital in Omsk after collapsing during a domestic flight to Moscow on August 20.

Gatilov stressed that the UN human rights commissioner was expected to be unbiased, saying, “Regrettably, but the high commissioner affords to make public statements that are based on unverified information. International officials must understand that they are responsible for what they say.”

“Fact finding is not yet over but the high commissioner uses such terms as ‘poisoning’ and ‘assassination attempt.’ … no one challenges the necessity of a thorough and unbiased investigation of the incident,” Gatilov said.

He noted that no reply had come from Germany to the inquiry of the Russian prosecutor general for Navalny’s medical records and it “makes one think that certain circles are unwilling to conduct an objective and fair investigation.”

“So, the question is: who is using such situations and, what is most important, what for? It looks like it is done to appoint those to blame beforehand and provoke a heat-of-the-moment reaction of those who can influence public opinion due to his or her authority or position,” Gatilov said.

France postpones strategic talks with Russia

Meanwhile, France has postponed a visit by its foreign and armed forces ministers to Russia over the alleged poisoning of Navalny.

“Given the current circumstances and after an exchange with Russian authorities, the Franco-Russian council on security cooperation has been postponed to a later date,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly had been due in Moscow for strategic talks on September 14. The talks were allegedly part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to reduce distrust between Russia and the West.

However, over the weekend, Le Drian demanded that Russia explain how Navalny could have been poisoned on its territory with a nerve agent.

“We would not be credible if we held the talks in the current climate,” a French diplomat said.

Relations between Moscow and the rest of Europe have deteriorated since 2014, when the then-Ukrainian territory of Crimea voted in a referendum to fall under Russian sovereignty. The European Union has leveled several rounds of sanctions against Moscow.

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