DISINFO: Chemical substances for plastic might have been found in samples taken from Navalny
SUMMARY
The substance that the OPCW might possess from the probes taken from Navalny might be impregnating substance for plastic or biological phosphates from human skin, says the experts.
The blogger Alexei Navalny has several times declared that he was poisoned at the airport in a Russian city with a weapons-grade chemical substance called “Novichok”. The spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova has declared that she considers this affair a Western scheme.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying the poisoning of prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny as staged and targeted against Russia.
The prominent Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. Initially hospitalised in Omsk, at the request of his family he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin. At the request of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, a specialist Bundeswehr laboratory carried out toxicological tests on samples from Alexei Navalny. The results of these tests have revealed unequivocal proof of the presence of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.
In its turn, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), where Russia is a member, issued a statement verifying previous statements by the German authorities. Several reports have indicated that the OPCW tests showed that blood and urine samples contained a "cholinesterase inhibitor" similar to two Novichok chemicals that were banned by the Hague-based institute in 2019. The OPCW findings corroborated earlier independent conclusions by German, French, and Swedish laboratories.
Navalny is charged with mock accusations in trials that the European Court of Human Rights has described as politically motivated. The European Union has condemned the detention of Alexei Navalny and called for his immediate release.
A team of UN experts have studied the case and appealed to the Russian government to explain its actions in connection with the incident. Their report was made publish 1 March 2021, after the Russian government failed to provide a reply. The report can be read here.
Read also similar disinformation cases in our database alleging that the Western intelligence agencies are working with Navalny, or that the West will falsely accuse Russia of poisoning Navalny, as with Skripal and Litvinenko; or that Navalny is a depleted political project; or that the West needs Alexei Navalny to destabilise the situation in Russia.