UNITED NATIONS, October 7. /TASS/. Attempts by Western nations to accuse Russia in connection with the so-called Navalny case are absurd, since Moscow itself is trying to facilitate the investigation in every way to establish the truth of the matter, Acting Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Konstantin Vorontsov said in a speech at the UN General Assembly First Committee.
"We would also want to react to provocative and unfounded statements from Norway, Italy and Canada with unsubstantiated assessments regarding the so-called Navalny case," Vorontsov said. "In order not to repeat myself and not to waste your precious time we would ask the Norwegian, Italian and Canadian colleagues to familiarize themselves with our statement from yesterday within the framework of the right to reply, where we set forth in detail our vision of the absurd situation regarding the investigation of this case," he added.
"Let us emphasize once again: the Russian Federation is resolute about establishing the truth in this incident. We confirm our readiness for substantive cooperation between the law enforcement agencies and respective experts," Vorontsov stressed.
Navalny case
Alexey Navalny was taken to a hospital in Omsk on August 20, 2020, after collapsing on board a plane. Later, he was taken to Berlin for treatment. The German government on September 2, 2020, claimed that the blogger was affected by a toxic agent from the Novichok family. Berlin argued that laboratories in France and Sweden confirmed these conclusions. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly said that Moscow was ready for all-round cooperation with Germany. He stressed that before his transportation to Berlin no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny's system.
Russian authorities expressed their readiness to cooperate in the investigation and sent several official requests on that matter. Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in September that in 2020-2021, eight inquiries and letters from the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office were sent to German law enforcement agencies with the request to present material evidence and clarify various circumstances related to the Navalny case. However, they were all left without an intelligible answer.
On February 2, Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court converted Alexey Navalny’s suspended sentence to 3 years and 6 months in a medium-security prison for repeated violations of the terms of his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. Three weeks later, Moscow’s city court upheld the decision and counted the time served under house arrest towards the prison term. The blogger is serving his sentence at Penal Colony No. 2 in Pokrov in the Vladimir Region.