BERLIN: Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, , was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.
Navalny is in intensive care in a Berlin hospital
She said Berlin now expected Moscow to explain itself and that Germany would consult its NATO allies about how to respond, raising the prospect of new Western sanctions on Russia.
Moscow has denied involvement in the incident and the Russian foreign ministry said Germany’s assertion was not backed by evidence, complaining about the way Germany had chosen to release information about Navalny.
“This is disturbing information about the attempted murder through poisoning against a leading Russian opposition figure,” Merkel told a news conference. “Alexei Navalny was the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group.”
Novichok is the same substance that Britain said was used against a Russian double agent and his daughter in an attack in England in 2018. The deadly group of nerve agents was developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.
Navalny specialised in high-impact investigations into official corruption. He was airlifted to Germany last month after collapsing on a domestic Russian flight after drinking a cup of tea that his allies said was poisoned.
White House reaction
The White House said the use of Novichok was “completely reprehensible,” with the US National Security Council saying on Twitter that Washington would work with allies “to hold those in Russia accountable, wherever the evidence leads, and restrict funds for their malign activities”.
The Kremlin, which has rejected any suggestion that it or the Russian state was involved, said it wanted a full exchange of information and that Germany and Russia should cooperate.
But it added it was unable yet to give a proper statement about the German findings.Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told state TV that the German move looked like another fact-free information campaign against Russia.