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NAVALNY'S ALLEGED POISONING

Lavrov urges German defense minister to answer questions about Navalny affair

It was at a Bundeswehr clinic that poisonous substances in the Russian blogger's body were detected, the top diplomat recalled

© Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/TASS

TEHRAN, April 13. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to provide explanations regarding the affair of Russian blogger Alexey Navalny in response to her statement it was desirable to get information about Russian troop movements near the border with Ukraine.

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"If Frau Kramp-Karrenbauer is so much concerned about getting information on this or that score, I would like to see her reciprocate and persuade her government to share with us the information [regarding the Navalny affair] our German counterparts have been so painstakingly hiding from us," Lavrov told a news conference.

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Lavrov believes that Kramp-Karrenbauer may play a leading role in clearing up the Navalny affair, because, as follows from Berlin’s claims, poisonous substances in his body were detected at a Bundeswehr clinic.

"Frau Kramp-Karrenbauer is precisely the one who is competent enough to shed light on the questions that we have legitimately and for a long time, but to little avail addressed to our German counterparts," Lavrov said.

On Sunday, the German defense minister tweeted a request addressed to Russia for explaining "which troops are moved where and to what end." Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov earlier said that no country should find troop movements inside Russia’s territory worrisome, because they were not a threat to anyone.

If Russia has nothing to hide it could easily explain which troops are moved where and to what end. https://t.co/0VEHAdXxjZ
— A. Kramp-Karrenbauer (@akk) April 10, 2021

Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20, 2020 after becoming ill during his Tomsk-Moscow flight. On August 22, he was airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital. The German government claimed that having examined Navalny’s test samples the Bundeswehr’s toxicologists had come to the conclusion Navalny had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family. Moscow said more than once that Russia remained ready for any comprehensive cooperation with Germany and that no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny’s system prior to his transfer to Berlin.

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