Alexei Navalny: Aides say Novichok found on water bottle

Russian politician Alexei Navalny’s team said Thursday they had found traces of Novichok on a water bottle in his hotel room in Siberia.

A video posted on the Kremlin critic’s Instagram account showed members of his team searching the room in the Xander Hotel in Tomsk on August 20, an hour after they learned he had fallen sick on a flight to Moscow.

“It was decided to gather up everything that could even hypothetically be useful and hand it to the doctors in Germany. The fact that the case would not be investigated in Russia was quite obvious,” the post said.

Read more: Opinion: In wake of Navalny attack, what will become of German-Russian relations?

The video showed members of Navalny’s team collecting several empty bottles of “Holy Spring” mineral water, among other items.

“Two weeks later, a German laboratory found traces of Novichok precisely on the bottle of water from the Tomsk hotel room,” the post said.

“And then more laboratories that took analyses from Alexei confirmed that that was what poisoned Navalny. Now we understand: it was done before he left his hotel room to go to the airport.”

Read more: Alexei Navalny: UN urges Russia to probe suspected poisoning

Russia said it carried out pre-investigation checks, adding that it needs more evidence before it can open a formal criminal probe into the case.

Navalny was airlifted to Berlin last month after falling ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow.

The Russian hospital that initially treated him said there was no evidence he was poisoned.

Chemical weapons watchdog anylzes samples

Meanwhile, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed Thursday that Germany had formally requested “technical assistance” over the alleged poisoning of Navalny.

The global chemical weapons watchdog said it had sent experts to Germany to collect “biomedical samples from Navalny for analysis.” The OPCW said it would share the results with Germany

Berlin says it has proof that Navalny was poisoned on August 20 with the Soviet-era chemical agent Novichok.

“We are certain it was a poison from the Novichok group,” Niels Annen, the minister of state at the German foreign ministry, told DW on Wednesday.

“It is quite obvious that this is a breach of international law. Russian credibility will be infringed by this,” he added.

Labs in France and Sweden have confirmed that the banned weapons-grade substance was used in targeting Navalny, German authorities said on Monday, adding that they were awaiting the OPCW’s evaluation.

The OPCW could be asked to use its recently-acquired powers to attribute blame for chemical attacks — a mandate that Moscow bitterly opposes.

Read more: ‘Hi, this is Navalny’: Poisoned Kremlin critic posts his own update on condition

• A history of political poisonings

  Alexei Navalny

  Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was rushed to hospital in Siberia after being taken ill on a flight to Moscow. His aides allege he was poisoned in revenge for his campaigns against corruption. The 44-year-old ex-lawyer apparently only drank black tea before taking off from Omsk airport, which his team think was laced with a toxin that put him in a coma.

• A history of political poisonings

  Pyotr Verzilov

  In 2018, Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov was reported to be in a critical condition after allegedly being poisoned in Moscow. It happened shortly after he gave a TV interview criticizing Russia’s legal system. Verzilov, the unofficial spokesman for the rock group Pussy Riot, was transferred to a hospital in Berlin where doctors said it was “highly probable” that he had been poisoned.

• A history of political poisonings

  Sergei Skripal

  Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy, was found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the British city of Salisbury after he was exposed to what was later revealed to be the nerve agent Novichok. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the situation “tragic” but said, “We don’t have information about what could be the cause” of the incident.

• A history of political poisonings

  Kim Jong Nam

  The estranged half-brother of Kim Jong Un was killed on February 13, 2018 at Kuala Lumpur airport after two women allegedly smeared the chemical nerve agent VX on his face. In February, a Malaysian court heard that Kim Jong Nam had been carrying a dozen vials of antidote for the deadly nerve agent VX in his backpack at the time of the poisoning.

• A history of political poisonings

  Alexander Litvinenko

  Former Russian spy Litvinenko had worked for the Federal Security Service (FSB) before he defected to Britain, where he became a journalist and wrote two books of accusations against the FSB and Putin. He became ill after meeting with two former KGB officers and died on November 23, 2006. A government inquiry found he was killed by radioactive polonium-210 which it alleged the men put in his tea.

• A history of political poisonings

  Viktor Kalashnikov

  In November 2010, doctors at Berlin’s Charité hospital discovered high levels of mercury had been found in a Russian dissident couple working in Berlin. Kalashnikov, a freelance journalist and former KGB colonel, had 3.7 micrograms of mercury per litre of blood, while his wife had 56 micrograms. A safe level is 1-3 micrograms. Viktor reportedly told German magazine Focus that “Moscow poisoned us.”

• A history of political poisonings

  Viktor Yushchenko

  Ukrainian opposition leader Yushchenko became sick in September 2004 and was diagnosed with acute pancreatis caused by a viral infection and chemical substances. The illness resulted in facial disfigurement, with pockmarks, bloating and jaundice. Doctors said the changes to his face were from chloracne, which is a result of dioxin poisoning. Yushchenko claimed government agents poisoned him.

• A history of political poisonings

  Khaled Meshaal

  On September 25, 1997, Israel’s intelligence agency attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Meshaal, under orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two agents sprayed a poisonous substance into Meshaal’s ear as he walked into the Hamas offices in Amman, Jordan. The assassination attempt was unsuccessful and not long afterward the two Israeli agents were captured.

• A history of political poisonings

  Georgi Markov

  In 1978, Bulgarian dissident Markov was waiting at a bus stop after a shift at the BBC when he felt a sharp jab in his thigh. He turned to see a man picking up an umbrella. A small bump appeared where he felt the jab and four days later he died. An autopsy found he’d been killed by a small pellet containing a 0.2-milligram dose of ricin. Many believe the poisoned dart was fired from the umbrella.

• A history of political poisonings

  Grigori Rasputin

  On December 30, 1916, mystic and spiritual healer Rasputin arrived at Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg at the invitation Prince Felix Yusupov. There, Prince Yusupov offered Rasputin cakes laced with potassium cyanide but he just kept eating them. Yusupov then gave him wine in a cyanide-laced wine glasses, but still Rasputin continued to drink. With the poison failing, Rasputin was shot and killed.

  Author: Louisa Wright, Nik Martin

shs/rt (Reuters, AFP)

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/alexei-navalny-aides-say-novichok-found-on-water-bottle/a-54957100?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom