Russia presses Germany for more detail on Navalny, urges 'transparency'
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[September 04, 2020]
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said
on Friday that it wanted dialogue with Germany over the case of
opposition politician Alexei Navalny and that Russian doctors who
treated him initially were much more transparent than the German doctors
treating him now.
Germany, where Navalny is in hospital, has said he was poisoned with a
Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent and wants the perpetrators held to
account. Russia has until now not opened a criminal investigation and
said there is no evidence yet of a crime.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow wanted to find out from
Germany what exact substance caused Navalny to fall ill in Siberia last
month.
"According to the version of our doctors it wasn't a poisoning," Peskov
said. "The German specialists managed to establish some kind of
poisonous substance. We're counting on a dialogue with our German
colleagues."
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He added: "Investigative actions are being carried out by our
specialists, and if there is confirmation of the presence of poisonous
substances in the biological material of the patient (Navalny), then of
course legal consequences will follow. We ask everyone to rely on the
facts."
Navalny is the most popular and prominent opponent of President Vladimir
Putin, and the German announcement this week that he was poisoned by a
nerve agent has raised the possibility of further Western sanctions
against Moscow.
Separately, a Russian court said on Friday it had rejected a complaint
filed by allies of Navalny accusing a top law enforcement body of
inaction over what they said was his attempted murder.
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![](../images/090420PIX/news_q33.jpg)
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny delivers a speech during a
rally to demand the release of jailed protesters, who were detained
during opposition demonstrations for fair elections, in Moscow,
Russia September 29, 2019. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
One of Navalny's allies accused the Investigative Committee, which
handles probes into major crimes, of inaction following a statement
they filed to it on Aug. 20 demanding a criminal investigation be
opened into Navalny's attempted murder.
The court said the Investigative Committee had passed on the
statement by Navalny's supporters to one of its regional branches in
Siberia and asked for it to be reviewed.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, said the court had said their
statement had been treated as a "citizen's appeal", a legal nuance
she said meant it could take up to 30 days for it be looked at.
"Anything so they don't have to start an investigation," she wrote
on Twitter.
(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, Anton Kolodyazhnyy and Maria
Vasilyeva; writing by Tom Balmforth and Mark Trevelyan, Editing by
William Maclean)
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