German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas addresses a media statement in Berlin, Germany September 2, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)
Germany has threatened to impose sanctions on Russia over the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexi Navalny which left him in a medically-induced coma in hospital in Berlin.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Sunday that Germany, as the current head of the European Union (EU), will discuss possible sanctions on Russia.
If in the coming days Russia does not help clarify what happened, we will be compelled to discuss a response with our allies, Maas told German daily Bild. Any sanctions decided should be targeted, he added.
Navalny, 44, who had reportedly drunk a cup of tea at the airport prior to a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to the Russian capital of Moscow last month, collapsed on the flight and his plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk due to a sudden deterioration in his health.
Navalny’s team claimed that the drink had been poisoned, accusing Moscow of poisoning the opposition figure and ordering a ban on transporting him in an attempt on his life. But he was soon airlifted to Germany for treatment.
German doctors at Berlin’s Charite Hospital, where Navalny was admitted to, said clinical findings indicated he had been poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. They said the specific substance was unknown.
Russia has said its doctors who treated Navalny initially were much more transparent than the German doctors treating him now.
Germany claimed on Wednesday that Navalny had been affected by a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said according to Russian doctors it wasn’t a poisoning.
The German specialists managed to establish some kind of poisonous substance. We’re counting on a dialogue with our German colleagues, he said.
Peskov also said Russian specialists are carrying out investigations as well and that if there is confirmation of the presence of poisonous substances in the biological material of the patient, then of course legal consequences will follow.
We ask everyone to rely on the facts, he said.
On Saturday, Russia ‘s National Medical Chamber called on Germany’s Medical Association to set up a joint group of experts to assess his condition.
Many are concerned about Navalny’s fate, so the National Medical Chamber has called on the German Medical Association ... to establish an expert group in order to look into the main cause of Navalny’s state, said the chamber’s president Leonid Roshal.
If it turns out that Navalny was really poisoned, we believe it necessary to open a criminal case in Russia, Roshal added.
Russia has until now not opened an investigation into the case, saying there is no evidence yet of a crime.
While the West is accusing Russia of poisoning Navalny, US President Donald Trump said at a press briefing on Friday that his administration had not yet seen any proof of his poisoning.
It’s tragic. It’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look, Trump said at a news conference.
His State Department, however, took a different stance earlier on Friday, calling on Russia to cooperate fully with the international community’s investigation into this attack.
NATO on Friday reiterated the allegations, saying the poisoning was a serious breach of international law and requires an international response.
A NATO in-house lab test claimed it was beyond doubt that the opposition figure had been poisoned with Novichok, in what the NATO chief described as an assassination attempt.
In response to allegations about developing Novichok, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, For many years, specialists in many Western countries and in the specialized structures of NATO have worked with this wide ranging group of chemical components.
The allegation is the latest in a series of accusations against Moscow. In 2018, the UK accused Russia of having poisoned Sergei Skripal, a former double spy, and his daughter in Salisbury in southern England. Russia repeatedly denied any involvement in that incident.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/20072
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