Relations between Moscow and the West have deteriorated due to the situation in Ukraine and around Crimea, which was reunited with Russia after a referendum on the peninsula. Moscow was accused of interfering and sanctions against it were imposed. Russia retaliated, embarking on a course of import substitution. Also, the authorities have repeatedly noted that it is counterproductive to talk with Moscow in the language of sanctions. Russia has repeatedly stressed that it does not participate in the conflict in Ukraine and is not a subject of the Minsk settlement agreements.
Russia cannot start a criminal procedure in the case of Alexey Navalny because there is a lack of evidence. Russian judges have asked their [German] colleagues to be allowed to participate in the investigation but no one has answered to their requests.
Recurring disinformation narrative concerning the poisoning of a prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
As it is well known by now, Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. He was initially hospitalised in Omsk, but shortly afterwards, at the request of his family, he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin, where clinical findings indicated that he 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 Navalny.
Additionally, Navalny's poisoning with a Novichok-type agent had been solidly established and later independently corroborated by labs in France and Sweden, and finally confirmed by the OPCW.
Germany has responded to past Russian calls for Navalny's medical samples by saying that Russia should already have all it needs after its initial treatment of the dissident. German authorities also informed Russia via diplomatic channels on the progress of the investigation. Arne Collatz, a spokesman for Germany’s Defence Ministry also said the data had been provided to the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Furthermore, on September 11, Berlin’s Justice Ministry approved a request from Moscow for legal assistance in the investigation and information on Navalny’s state of health, “subject to his consent”.
See related disinformation cases alleging that Russophobic Western media push the narrative of Putin’s role in Navalny poisoning, that the West has an interest in the death of Navalny, that only traces of alcohol and caffeine were found in Navalny's blood, or that the West will falsely accuse Russia of poisoning Navalny.