Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the behavior of Western countries in the situation with Alexei Navalny. He is quoted by RIA Novosti.
“We have our own laws, according to which we cannot take our word for it to open a criminal case. Certain procedures must be followed. (…) a pre-investigation check was devoted to their observance, ”the Foreign Minister explained. He stressed that so far Moscow has no reason to open a criminal case on the situation with Navalny, and therefore the Prosecutor General's Office requested legal assistance from Berlin.
Lavrov noted that while the West is putting pressure on Russia, demanding to “confess” what happened to the Russian. In particular, the data of German toxicologists and specialists from the laboratories of France and Sweden are considered sufficient there. According to the diplomat, in this situation the Western countries have already “crossed all the boundaries of reason.”
Earlier, the official representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany, Steffen Seibert, spoke about the independent laboratories of France and Sweden who confirmed the presence of Novichok in Navalny's analyzes. He called on Russia “to provide explanations about these events.”
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.
