MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. The initiative proposed by a number of countries to resume discussions over the case of blogger Alexey Navalny, convicted in Russia, is a politicized campaign, Russia’s representative to the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, said on the YouTube channel Solovyov Live on Thursday.
"On October 5, a group of 45 countries, ostensibly concerned over what happened to Navalny, came out with a statement on the platform of the OPCW Executive Council. On the same day, Britain addressed us with a note under Article 9. The questions were about what we were doing to clarify the Omsk incident a year ago," Shulgin said. "As I heard that statement, it occurred to me at once it was a political campaign."
Shulgin said that under various pretexts attempts were made to prevent him from taking the floor for a statement. US, British, and Belgian ambassadors were particularly active in this respect.
"Of course, we had it our own way. I managed to not just make a statement. I walked across the conference hall and handed to Fernando Arias, the director of the OPCW Technical Secretariat in person, a thick 200-page file, including an addendum, containing a clear description of what we had done to establish the truth as to what happened [to Navalny] in those August days," Shulgin said. "I am telling this story to show that it was a pre-planned and politicized campaign. It shows the real worth of ostensible concern about the Russian blogger."
Background
At the OPCW Executive Council’s meeting, which opened on October 5, a group of 45 countries, mostly members of the Euro-Atlantic Community, addressed Russia with a query regarding the Navalny case. Russia provided a reply two days afterwards and initiated a counter-query addressed to Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, and the OPCW Technical Secretariat.
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 had been 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.