DISINFO: Navalny himself does not believe the story of Russian authorities' responsibility for his poisoning
SUMMARY
The diagnosis made by Germans makes it inadmissible for Navalny to return to his homeland for security reasons. But the fact that he stubbornly rushes back, right into the jaws of the dragon, which seems to have almost killed him, means that he simply does not believe in the story of his poisoning by Novichok and the reality of a threat to life from the Russian authorities.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on Alexey Navalny poisoning. Consistent with the narrative that Navalny has not been poisoned and the allegations are false otherwise he would not dare to return to Russia. Prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. Initially hospitalised in Omsk, at the request of his family he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin. Clinical findings at the Charité hospital indicated that Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. Subsequent toxicological tests provided unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny. France and Sweden confirmed that the cause of his illness was Novichok, a Russian nerve agent. Samples taken from Navalny had also been sent for testing to the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. Navalny's coma was medically induced and did not constitute a symptom of poisoning. Several other confirmed Novichok victims were put in a coma and subsequently regained consciousness. In 1987 Andrey Zheleznyakov, a researcher attached to the Soviet chemical warfare programme, suffered an accidental exposure to a Novichok-type compound. The accident left him permanently disabled but he lived for another six years. In March 2018, Russian ex-spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yuliya fell victim to poisoning in Salisbury but recovered with intensive medical care as did a police officer who had been exposed when he visited their home to investigate. The UK authorities established that the assassination attempt had been carried out by two Russian intelligence operatives using Novichok. The following June, two individuals in Amesbury, England were accidentally exposed to Novichok contained in a fake perfume bottle. One of the victims survived. See more recent stories on Navalny's poisoning: that Navalny is an agent of the Russian special services, that he was not poisoned by Novichok and Russian special services are not involved, and that he is an anti-Russian project and was poisoned by the sponsors.