NOVOSIBIRSK, September 21. /TASS/. About 200 people have been interviewed as part of a pre-investigation probe into the incident with opposition blogger Alexey Navalny. The probe is continued, the press service of the transport police department of the Russian interior ministry’s division for the Siberian Federal District.
"Transport police have taken a range of investigative measures during the probe. About 200 people have been interviewed to gather information that can help reconstruct the incident. These were people who had contacted with Navalny or witnessed his stay in Tomsk and the Tomsk region as well as some of the passengers who were onboard the same flight with Navalny. Investigators are currently analyzing their explanations, expert conclusions and other data and documents. The pre-investigation probe continues," it said.
According to the press service, the police are re-interviewing the staff of the Anti-Corruption Foundation who accompanied Navalny during his trip. The Tomsk division of the Russian interior ministry has issued inquiries for legal assistance to Germany, Sweden, and France. No response has come so far.
Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20 after collapsing on a Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk. He fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. On August 22, he was airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital.
On September 2, Berlin claimed that having examined Navalny’s test samples, German government toxicologists had come to the conclusion that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany. He pointed out that no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny’s system prior to his transfer to Berlin. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the German Foreign Office had not provided the Russian ambassador with any proof of its version of the incident.
On September 7, Charite medics said Navalny had been taken out of medically-induced coma and had been disconnected from the ventilator.