DISINFO: Russophobic Western media push narrative of Putin's role in Navalny poisoning
SUMMARY
A new narrative in the Western media claims that the Russian President Vladimir Putin is the mastermind who poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group, reviving an old trope used to stoke Russophobia. […] In 2018, similarly unverifiable claims were made about the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK and used to whip up fresh paranoia about Russia and Putin.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Russophobia and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. A prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. Initially hospitalized in Omsk, at the request of his family he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin. Clinical findings at the Charité hospital indicated that Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. Subsequent toxicological tests provided unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny. Pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets frequently accuse the West of Russophobia and are presenting a variety of mutually exclusive versions of what happened to Alexei Navalny. Similar techniques were used to sow doubt about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal with the nerve agent Novichok by GRU agents.