Germany says an old Soviet nerve gas was used in the Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny

BERLIN – The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with the same kind of Soviet-era nerve in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy used was poisoned, the government said Wednesday, provoking outrage from Western leaders who have asked to Moscow to be an explanation. The results – experts say point strong Russian state-owned – has added to the tensions between Russia and the West. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called Navalny poisoning of attempted murder, meant to silence one of the harshest critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Berlin hospital dissident treatment, said on a ventilator remains, even if his condition is improving. He said he expected a long recovery and still can not rule out the long-term effects on your health from poisoning. The federal government said it showed by a German military laboratory tests “prove without a shadow of doubt a chemical nerve agent from Novichok group.” The British authorities identified Novichok like poison the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter used in England. “There are very serious issues that now only able to meet the Russian government, and must answer,” Merkel said. to explain, also called the United Kingdom and Italy in Russia, what happened with the British prime minister Boris Johnson, the use of chemical called “outrageous weapon”. In Washington, a spokesman for the National Security Council tweeted John Ullyot was “totally reprehensible.” “We will work with our allies and the international community to move to Russia to account where the evidence leads,” said Ullyot. The head of EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, said that any use of chemical weapons would be “a violation of international law”. Navalny, a politician and investigators corruption, sick on a flight to Moscow on August 20 and was once in the Siberian city of Omsk, the plane made an emergency landing in a hospital. E ‘was two days later, the Berlin Charite, moved where doctors last week showed the initial tests Navalny had been poisoned. The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the Russian ambassador in his service was launched on Wednesday after the latest findings. deputy UN ambassador of Russia, Dmitry Polyansky pointed the finger shows like a knee-jerk reaction. “Today #Russia poses a must-do for every Western country,” he said in a tweet. In Moscow, the Russian authorities were quick to blame Germany does not share their knowledge. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian authorities “willing and interested in close cooperation and exchange of information” with Germany, but added that Berlin has made no official response to formal requests Office of the Russian Prosecutor General and doctors available to treat Navalny. Peskov reiterated that Russian doctors found no toxic substances in Navalny system. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova levied on state television that Germany preferred “public statements on all the facts with no warning whatsoever” “thorough investigation.” The German government said it would inform its European Union partners and NATO on the test results and they will consult on an answer. Germany is also the contact organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Shortly after the test results were announced, said the Charite that Navalny is still in intensive care, but “continue to improve.” “The recovery is likely to be protracted,” he said in a statement. “It ‘s too early to measure the long-term effects that may arise in connection with these serious poisoning.” Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University College London, has said Navalny prognosis is difficult to predict. He said it is necessary that “very swift action” to stabilize patients in cases of poisoning and put given the “significant delay” that Navalny was initially under the supervision of Russian doctors who said they had ruled out poisoning. “The problem is that even if Mr. Navalny were to survive there long-term persistent neurological problems,” said Sella. Navalny allies in Russia have insisted that was deliberately poisoned by the country’s authorities, accusations that the Kremlin was rejected “empty noise.” “For Navalny would poison with Novichok in 2020 exactly the same as an autograph to a crime to leave the scene like this,” Navalny longtime ally and strategist said Leonid Volkov in a tweet, which provided a photograph of Putin’s name and a signature next to it. It would not be the first time that one was leading, that the Russian ruling aligned so – or alleged for the first time the Kremlin of being behind her. Navalny allies, the Russian authorities have blamed the delay his transfer out of the country after the poisoning. It took a lot of wrangling and 48 hours Navalny to draw in Berlin. Local doctors at the time was said to be carried on unstable, and the Kremlin, said shift physicians. The medical team Siberian sold only after a charity that organizes an air medevac had revealed that German doctors who examined the politician said that it was stable enough to be moved. The reversal came as international pressure mounted on Moscow essentially. “The system has long since lost its ability to optimally operate. He had to choose between the scandal, he said, referring to Navalny the (possible) death of Omsk and the risk of poisoning to be discovered by German doctors,” analyst Abbas political Gallyamov. Novichok is a class of the Union nerve-grade Soviet military complex at the end of the Cold War has developed agents. Western arms experts believe that has always produced only in Russia. After Skripals were poisoned, said Russia, the United States, Britain and other Western countries the acquired had to make the nerve agent, and that the Novichok used in this attack could come from their know-how. Several Russian lawmakers said that Russia is not producing Novichok type. “Unless you work for the military, can not be accidentally exposed,” Richard Parsons, Senior Lecturer in biochemical toxicology at Kings College London, said. “It is not available anywhere except for the Russian army, for all I know,” Britain pays two Russians – the alleged agents of the Russian GRU military intelligence of being – in absentia with 2018 attack that killed Skripals left in critical condition and an English woman. Russia has refused men in the British ___ Associated Press writer Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Jill Lawless in London, Raf Caserta in Brussels, Matthew Lee in Washington, David increasing and Frank Jordans in Berlin, and Edith M. Lederer in extradite Nations contributed to this story.
Picture copyright by AP Photo / Alexander Zemlianichenko