Putin Critic Poisoned With Chemical Weapon, Germany Says
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The evidence of use of the nerve agent banned by the international agreements indicates involvement Russian military, the German specialists stated.
The attacker poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny with Novichok, a chemical nerve agent, the German government informed on Wednesday, presenting the strongest evidence that the attack could have been carried out by the Kremlin agencies.
Chancellor Hon. Angela Merkel held an emergency meeting with key members of her cabinet and called on Russia to immediately respond to the findings, the German Chancellor spokesman stated.
Berlin informed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's members and the European Union members about the results of the investigation through the appropriate channels in order to discuss the response with a sanctions.
Kremlin stated to Russian news agency that German authorities did not provide evidence of the conclusion but Merkel's spokesman explained that Foreign Ministry informed Russian Ambassador about the findings few hours before issuing of the public statement.
"We have unambiguously asked the Russian government to explain the background of this confirmed poisoning immediately and in full detail and transparency", German Foreign Minister Hon. Heiko mass informed. "We will discuss in the coming days how Europe will react in an appropriate way, and the decision will be depending on how Russia will behave now."
A special, secret laboratory of German military had proven without the doubt that a kind of Novichok, one of the most deadly military-grade nerve agents, was used on Mr Navalny, stated Mr Steffen Seibert, German's Chancellor spokesman.
During the special press conference German Chancellor Hon. Angela Merkel stated that it was obvious that someone wanted silence Mr Navalny. "The crime of which is Mr Navalny, it is a crime against our principles and values", Hon. Merkel emphasised.
The U.S. State Department official commented that America had no reason to doubt that someone poisoned Mr Navalny with Novichok.
The Russian specialist in the area of chemical military-grade agents Mr Vladimir Uglyev explained, in the interview with Russian opposition MBCH media, that a laboratory can easily detect traces of Novichok in a victim's body few days after the poisoning. Out of four agents, A-230, A-232, and A-234 types of Novichok are fluids and one, A-242, is the hard substance. The specialist suspects that the attacker utilised the latter, which does not result in the poisoning of others who have contact with the victim.
Mr Uglyev also stated, that the untypical symptoms of the sickness of Mr Navalny indicate that Novichok was mixed with one more agent, a Cholinomimetic, unknown to him, that caused an immediate coma.
In 2018, Russian military agents GRU attack a former Russian military intelligence officer Mr Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok, which is believed to be only available to state actors.