Alexei Navalny: Russia opposition leader poisoned with Novichok - Germany

BERLIN: There is "unequivocal proof" that Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, Germany has said. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said he was a victim of attempted murder and the world would look to Russia for answers, the BBC reported.

Navalny was airlifted to Berlin in a coma after falling ill on a flight in Russia's Siberia region last month. His team says he was poisoned on President Vladimir Putin's orders. The Kremlin has dismissed the allegation.

The Kremlin spokesman called on Germany for a full exchange of information and foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova complained the Novichok allegations were not backed up by evidence. "Where are the facts, where are the formulas, at least some kind of information?" she asked.

A Novichok nerve agent was used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK in 2018. While they survived, a British woman later died in hospital. The UK accused Russia's military intelligence of carrying out that attack.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the latest attack as "outrageous". "The Russian government must now explain what happened to MrNavalny - we will work with international partners to ensure justice is done," he tweeted. After the government in Berlin released results of toxicology tests carried out at a military laboratory, Chancellor Merkel said there were now "serious questions that only the Russian government can and must answer".

"Someone tried to silence [MrNavalny] and in the name of the whole German government I condemn that in the strongest terms." (IANS)

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