Maria Zakharova
In Russia, they explained the need for clinical samples located in a German clinic, Alexei Navalny. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that they are necessary to initiate a criminal case, her words are quoted in a commentary on the agency's website.
Samples are also required to complete the pre-investigation check conducted by Russian law enforcement officers on the facts of the blogger's illness and hospitalization. Zakharova noted that the verification period was extended until September 20.
“According to Russian law, it (verification) is an indispensable condition for the possible initiation of a criminal case, since no traces of poisoning were found following the examination of the patient by doctors in Omsk on August 21 and 22,” she said.
The commentary was given in connection with the statement by the Foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas regarding the situation around the blogger. Maas said during a press conference in Berlin on September 14 that Russia should contact the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW ).
According to Zakharova, Moscow regards this position of the German side as “an excuse, indicating its evasion from clarifying the truth in the situation with Navalny.”
Earlier on September 14, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office sent a new inquiry to Germany on the case of Alexei Navalny. The supervisory authority requested additional explanations from Navalny's physicians, information and copies of documents.
Navalny became ill on August 20 during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. In the first two days, doctors from the Omsk hospital helped him. They also introduced him to an artificial coma. On August 22, the patient was sent to a clinic in Berlin.
On September 2, the German government announced that military toxicologists had found traces of a substance from the Novichok group in Navalny's body, and called on the Russian government to respond to this information. Russian doctors say that no poisons were found in the patient's analyzes. On September 10, it became known that Navalny had completely recovered.
