DISINFO: Germany is hiding evidence in Navalny case
SUMMARY
The German government has not specified which items allegedly containing traces of the Novichok group were part of a case involving Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. On September 2, the German government claimed that Navalny’s samples contained traces of a neurotoxic agent of the Novichok “family” but tests in Russia showed no signs of poisoning. Russia has also asked Germany to provide Russian investigators with evidence. At the request of Moscow, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons sent a technical mission to assist the Russian investigation, which earlier found traces of a toxin that has not yet been registered in the OPCW as banned.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying the poisoning of prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny as staged and targeted against Russia.
A 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.
Russia keeps trying to question these results. However, indisputable evidence exists. After Germany requested its technical assistance, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) 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 body in 2019. The OPCW findings corroborated earlier independent conclusions by German, French, and Swedish laboratories.
Additionally, although Moscow insists that the OPCW findings pointed to a toxin that has not yet been registered in the Organization, this is simply not true. The OPCW statement mentioned that the precise substance in Navalny’s samples which was detected by the organisation's designated laboratories was not on the list of banned chemical weapons, but is a new and undeclared variant in the Novichok family.
Read also similar disinformation cases 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.