MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. Washington’s position on the situation around Russian opposition blogger Alexey Navalny is destructive and politicized, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on Monday.
- Probe into Navalny’s hospitalization will not be limited to 30 days — source
- Russian Prosecutor General’s Office sends appeals to France, Sweden over Navalny
- German cabinet spokesman reiterates call on Russia for clarifications on Navalny incident
- OPCW not finished with analysis of Navalny’s test samples yet
- Germany, other Western states actively "cultivated" OPCW in Navalny situation - diplomat
- Moscow castigates Germany’s covertly passing samples from Navalny to France, Sweden
- OPCW redirects Moscow’s request on Navalny case to Berlin
- EU warns Navalny incident will negatively affect relations with Moscow, says Russian envoy
- Russian, German top diplomats discuss interaction in Navalny case — Foreign Ministry
- Sanctions over Navalny incident would symbolize dirty scheming, says Russian lawmaker
- EU should approve its own sanctions regime named after Navalny — top diplomat Borrell
- Navalny: 'I'm able to breathe on my own'
- Russian diplomat calls Germany’s proposal on Navalny case ‘an excuse’
"The entire situation is being politicized by the Western group, including the United States," he said. "I cannot say what kind of contacts the Americans have on this matter and why, but I can say without reservation that that their approach in dialogue with us is totally politicized and, to a larger extent, destructive."
According to the Russian senior diplomat, Western players are seeking to forge all types of coalitions on a purely anti-Russian basis. "Some are seeking to win points from this affair," he noted. "This is yet another case of the use of algorithms exploited more than once in the past. And it is sad."
"We need information from the German side about what is going on there, but we see no readiness for cooperation," Ryabkov said. "We don’t lose hope that the colleagues in Berlin will finally give a clear answer to our numerous questions. The same goes for the colleagues in Paris and Stockholm."
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.