Russia calls upon OPCW to release data on Navalny

Russia calls upon OPCW to release data on Navalny ‘poisoning’ to all member states; says Germany failing to provide answers

24 Sep, 2020 07:04  / 

The building of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague © Piroschka van de Wouw

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Russia’s mission to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has asked Germany to make public all the data, at its disposal, related to the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny.

After Berlin refused to share information related to the Navalny affair with Moscow, sending it to the OPCW instead, Russian representatives reached out to Germany through the organization, Aleksandr Shulgin, envoy to the chemical weapons watchdog, told RT.

“We’ve sent a letter to the permanent representation of Germany,” Shulgin explained.

We requested the Germans to provide us with exhaustive information about results of analyses, blood samples, biological samples, in one word – all the materials in relation with this.

Apart from that, Russia’s mission to the OPCW also contacted the leadership of the international organization, asking it to release all Navalny-related information it has to the member states, effectively making it public.

“I’ve forwarded my personal letter to the Director General of the OPCW, Fernando Arias, briefing him about our note to the Germans and asking him to make this available for all member states of the chemical weapons organization,” Shulgin said.

So far, Moscow has not received any information from German officials despite repeated requests from various government agencies. The only result of this lack of communication is the disruption of Russia’s own domestic probe into what happened to Navalny, according to Shulgin. This has delayed the pre-investigation process by Russia’s prosecutor general, which is necessary in order to determine whether the incident requires a full-fledged criminal inquiry or not.

 

The Navalny saga unfolded on August 20, when the opposition figure fell ill on a plane traveling from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow. The aircraft had to make an emergency stop in another Siberian city – Omsk – where the activist was hospitalized in an unresponsive condition.

Navalny was flown to Berlin’s Charité clinic two days later, and German doctors – supported by the authorities – were quick to claim that he was exposed to a toxin from the notorious ‘Novichok’ family. The claims were further reinforced by Navalny’s associates, who collected “evidence” from a Tomsk hotel, including a water bottle allegedly containing the toxin.

However, doctors in Omsk said they did not find any traces of toxic substances in Navalny’s samples. He was discharged from the hospital in Berlin on Wednesday, where the doctors at Charité said that a “complete recovery is possible” after his alleged exposure to the supposedly extremely deadly nerve agent.