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No point in OPCW visiting Russia to investigate Navalny incident, Russian envoy says

The conditions that they set make their visit pointless, Vasily Nebenzya said

Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya Alexandr Sherbak/TASS

Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya

© Alexandr Sherbak/TASS

UNITED NATIONS, January 25. /TASS/. There is no point for an Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) mission to visit Russia to investigate the Alexey Navalny incident given the conditions that the organization has set, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said in an exclusive interview with TASS.

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"We invited them and they kept on setting conditions, unlike the case with Germans, to whom they were quick to make a visit," he pointed out. "The conditions that they eventually set make their visit pointless," the Russian envoy added.

OPCW Director General Fernando Arias said at a United Nations Security Council meeting in December 2020 that the OPCW was discussing with Moscow the possibility of a visit to Russia to investigate the incident involving blogger Alexey Navalny. Russia sent a request for an OPCW visit back in early October.

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