Disinfo: Navalny's toxin contamination, if any, could have taken place in Germany or en route there

Summary

As recently as November 2020, Russia's chief diplomat raised a number of criticisms of the German side's conduct in this matter - as well as the statement that neither the doctors and lab technicians at the emergency hospital in Omsk, Russia, nor those at Berlin's Charité hospital found traces of warfare agents in or on Navalny's body, and that such a finding was only reported from a Bundeswehr clinic. Russia had serious reason to believe that any contamination of Navalny with toxins, if any, could have taken place in Germany or en route there.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny in August 2020 presented as a series of rhetorical assumptions, suggesting a poisoning of Navalny in Germany.

The transport of Alexei Navalny from Omsk to Berlin was handled by the German NGO "Cinema for Peace". The initiative "Cinema for Peace" had sent a plane from Germany to Omsk to bring Nawalny to Berlin, to the Charité Clinic for medical treatment. According to the director of "Cinema for Peace", Jaka Bizilj, the organisation became active in the case of Navalny because of humanitarian reasons. In the past, two years ago, "Cinema for Peace" had already flown a government critic out of Russia - the "Pussy Riot" member Pyotr Versilov was transported to Germany, where he received treatment as well.

The German Federal government said that toxicological tests provided “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group” in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny. In addition, on 14 September 2020, the German government provided research by two more independent laboratories in France and Sweden, which confirmed the presence of poison from the Novichok group in the body of politician Alexei Navalny. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Germany informed the Russian ambassador to Germany, the EU and NATO, on the results of the investigation. Germany also informed Russia via diplomatic channels on the progress of the investigation. Arne Collatz, a spokesman for Germany’s Defence Ministry said the data had been provided to the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“This international organisation, of which Russia is also a member, has a treaty-based mandate to oversee and enforce the ban on the use, production, storage as well as research into chemical weapons.”

The OPCW report, published 8 October 2020, also supports the German conclusions. The OPCW report can be found here. The European Union condemned the poisoning of Alexei Navalny in the strongest possible terms. Read similar disinformation messages alleging that the West has an interest in the death of Navalny, that Germany provided no evidence for the hypothesis that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok and that there is no signs that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok.

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de.rt.com (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 242
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 14/04/2021
  • Article language(s) German
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Germany, Russia
  • Keywords: Alexei Navalny, Conspiracy theory
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