Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, said during a meeting of the UN Security Council that the Russian side has no grounds to launch an investigation into the incident with Alexey Navalny.
"We have no grounds to start an investigation. Our doctors, who, by the way, saved Alexey Navalny, did not find any traces of chemical weapons in his tests. We have not received any evidence from Germany that would allow us to conclude that this is a deliberate crime," Nebenzia said in response to calls from diplomats for Russia to investigate.
In his opinion, what happened to the Russian opposition leader suggests "thoughts of some dirty staged game."
"This leads us to a rhetorical question: who benefits from this, he did it," the permanent representative said.
The Russian diplomat assured that Moscow is most interested in finding out the reasons for what happened with Navalny, and added that the Russian Ambassador was in the German Foreign Ministry, but did not receive any data requested by Moscow.
"If these materials are not presented by the German side, it will be regarded by the Russian side as a refusal of the German government to establish the truth in the context of an objective investigation, and all previous and current actions regarding Alexey Navalny (will be considered) as a blatant hostile provocation against Russia, which will definitely undermine Russian-German relations and international relations in general," Nebenzia said.
"If you want an explanation, put the facts on the table and we will exchange views. Why should we believe in accusations that are not supported by evidence, even if it is, as you say, beyond any doubt?" - added the Russian diplomat.
Opposition leader Alexey Navalny became ill on August 20 on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. The plane landed urgently in Omsk. The opposition leader was hospitalized in a coma in the intensive care unit of the Omsk hospital. On August 22, he was transferred to the Charite clinic in Berlin for treatment. On September 2, the German authorities, with reference to the Bundeswehr laboratory, announced that traces of poison from the Novichok group were found in Navalny's body. On September 7, Charite reported that Navalny was brought out of an artificial coma and his condition improved.
From the very beginning, Russia and Western countries began to exchange accusations of failure to provide information on the situation with Navalny. The West believes that Navalny was poisoned, and calls on Moscow to provide the necessary explanations. They are already discussing the introduction of new sanctions against Russia, in particular, there are calls to freeze the Nord stream 2 project.
In turn, Moscow complains that Germany does not transmit data on the situation with Navalny to Russia, and declares its readiness to exchange information. In addition, the Russian side notes that there are no legal grounds for initiating a criminal case yet, although pre-investigation actions are being carried out.
On September 9, German media, citing the German Ministry of Defense, reported that Berlin had passed the results of Navalny's research to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and did not see the need to send them directly to Russia. Moscow denies this.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Zuma \ TASS
Based on materials from Interfax