MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned German Ambassador to Moscow Geza Andreas von Geyr to discuss the situation around blogger Alexei Navalny, the ministry’s Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Tuesday.

"We expect Berlin to provide us with all the available data, including the results of lab tests conducted by the Bundeswehr as well as the ‘evidence’ that the German Foreign Ministry has. We are waiting to receive the German ambassador [in the Foreign Ministry’s building] on Smolenskaya Square," the diplomat said.

Zakharova mentioned media reports about the exchange of information on Navalny between Germany’s Charite hospital, a Bendeswehr laboratory, the United Kingdom’s Porton Down laboratory and Bulgarian facilities. "It becomes available to outlets that publish leaks, such as Bellingcat. At the same time, when asked about the Russian state’s involvement in the incident, German Foreign Minister Maas told reporters that ‘there is a lot of evidence of that’," the Russian diplomat noted. "It is too serious to allow German officials to remain silent," she said. "It’s time to show the cards because it is clear that Berlin is bluffing for the sake of dirty political scheming," Zakharova added.

Navalny incident

On August 20, a plane carrying Russian blogger Alexei Navalny made an emergency landing in the Russian city of Omsk after the blogger had suddenly felt unwell in mid-flight. Navalny was taken to hospital in a coma and was hooked up to a ventilator. On August 22, he was flown to Germany for treatment at Berlin’s Charite hospital. Doctors said on September 7 that he had been taken out of coma and would be gradually switched off from the ventilator.

The German government said on September 2, citing the results of a toxicological analysis carried out by Bundeswehr experts, that Navalny had been poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent. Russia said it was interested in investigating the incident but expected Germany to respond to Moscow’s official request. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that Russian doctors had detected no traces of poisonous substances in Navalny’s body. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in turn, noted that Germany had failed to provide any evidence of poisoning.