Member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Elena Panina commented to RIA Novosti on the words of the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany Steffen Seibert about the “unjustification” of the RF retaliatory sanctions on the incident with Alexey Navalny, noting that the behavior of the German authorities looks anecdotal.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia has already adopted retaliatory sanctions against a number of representatives of Germany and France in connection with the situation with Navalny and will soon notify its European partners about them. Seibert said on Friday that Germany considers unjustified and inappropriate Russian sanctions against officials of Germany and France.
As Panina believes, it is strange to hear from a German politician that “Russia has everything it needs” to investigate a “crime”, since the German side refused to provide evidence, and responded to requests from official structures of the Russian Federation with formal replies.
The deputy noted that Russia feels confident in this matter and is ready to defend its innocence, including at the UN. “As for the German authorities, their behavior in this case looks anecdotal. When taking aggressive steps against Russia, the Western countries must be ready for a symmetrical response,” added a member of the State Duma committee on international affairs.
Navalny was hospitalized on August 20 in Omsk after he became ill on the plane. Based on the results of the examinations, the Omsk doctors called the main diagnosis a metabolic disorder, which caused a sharp change in blood sugar. What caused it is not yet clear, but according to Omsk doctors, no poisons were found in Navalny’s blood and urine.
Later he was transported by plane to Germany. After that, the FRG government announced, citing military doctors, that Navalny had allegedly been poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of toxic warfare agents. Later, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany reported that the conclusions of German experts were confirmed by the laboratories of Sweden and France, in parallel, at the request of Berlin, the OPCW is conducting its research. In this regard, the Kremlin stated that Berlin did not inform Moscow of its findings, and the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Russia was waiting for a response from Germany to an official request on this situation. The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova noted that in a month Russia sent Germany three requests for legal assistance on the situation with Navalny, no answers were received.
On the day of Navalny’s hospitalization, the prosecutor’s office and the police began to conduct their checks. Peskov noted that de facto investigative actions on the situation with Navalny are underway, if the presence of a poisonous substance is confirmed, the investigation will be open and de jure. According to him, Russia is ready to cooperate with Europe on the situation with Navalny, but needs information from Paris and Berlin.
The FRG authorities did not earlier deny that the German intelligence service BND had access to the Novichok military poisoning agent since the 1990s.
The Berlin clinic Charite reported on September 23 that Navalny was discharged from the hospital, his condition is satisfactory, the attending doctors do not exclude his complete recovery.