Russian President Vladimir Putin accuses Germany of not cooperating in investigating the poison attack. Alexei Navalny denies: He was questioned.

Russia's opposition politician Alexei Navalny claims to have been questioned by investigators in Germany about the poison attack on him. Navalny wrote on his Telegram channel that he spent half the day with "the German public prosecutor's office". The statement by Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin that Germany is not cooperating in investigating the crime thus turns out to be a lie, wrote Navalny, who is currently recovering in Germany.

Well, they (the Germans) were asked to question me and were sent questions. They asked me these questions, wrote down the answers and sent them to Moscow, wrote Navalny.

Russia had sent several requests for legal aid to Germany in the past and accused the authorities in Berlin of not responding. The federal government had rejected this as wrong.

At his big annual press conference on Thursday, Putin once again asked Germany to provide evidence of the August attack on its sharpest critic. Germany, on the other hand, sees Russia as being responsible and had pointed out that Navalny's blood samples and clothing were left there as evidence. According to the findings of several western laboratories - including that of the Bundeswehr - the chemical weapons ban, Novichok, was unequivocally detected in the organism of Navalny.
Putin denies involvement of Russian secret services.



Putin: Russian secret services are spying on Navalny

At the press conference, Putin also denied that Russian secret services were involved in the poison attack on Navalny. If they had been involved, “they would have brought it to an end,” Putin said. Navalny is supported by the US secret services and must therefore also be monitored by the Russian services. But this does not mean that he has to be poisoned, added Putin.

Putin was referring to reports that the prominent Kremlin critic was poisoned by the domestic intelligence service FSB. Research by several media outlets, including CNN and Der Spiegel, is not a revelation, but merely a confirmation of the information provided by the US secret services. As always, he did not call Navalny by name, but referred to him as a "patient of the Berlin clinic". Navalny had been treated in the Berlin Charité after the poison attack.

On Monday, the German weekly, Der Spiegel reported that at least eight FSB employees had been identified in connection with the poison attack on Navalny.