MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. Western sanctions on Russia over an incident involving blogger Alexei Navalny would symbolize dirty political scheming, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told reporters on Tuesday.
"If sanctions are introduced in the name of Navalny, it will become a symbol of the West’s dirty political scheming against Russia," he pointed out. When Navalny was taken to Germany for treatment, there were no signs of poisoning, Slutsky noted.
In addition, he cited Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Chief Sergei Naryshkin who had said that the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles had been destroyed in accordance with a convention banning chemical weapons. "It was confirmed by experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. If a military-grade agent did find its way into Navalny’s body after he had crossed the border, I think there is a need for a separate independent investigation," Slutsky said.
The senior Russian lawmaker also noted that Moscow had put those questions before Berlin but received no answers. At the same time, in his words, Navalny’s samples taken in Germany were sent to French and Swiss laboratories. "The Skripal case and Navalny’s alleged poisoning are links in the same chain of provocations that undermines international law. The West has unfortunately grown used to staging situations and using manipulations to achieve its cynical goals and gain political advantages," Slutsky emphasized.