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Lavrov says West has no right to ask for Navalny probe

"These people have no right to interfere in our domestic affairs, especially since one can point the finger at them, too, mentioning Julian Assange and Gonzalo Lira who died from torture in a Ukrainian prison," the Russian top diplomat noted

RIO DE JANEIRO, February 22. /TASS/. The West has no right to interfere in Russia’s domestic affairs and its demands for "an independent investigation" into Alexey Navalny’s death are a disgrace, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following a G20 ministerial meeting.

"These people have no right to interfere in our domestic affairs, especially since one can point the finger at them, too, mentioning Julian Assange and [Gonzalo] Lira who died from torture in a Ukrainian prison. Neither the Americans nor other Western leaders even bothered to comment on this in any way," he noted. "This only further convinces me that the Nazis are allowed to do whatever they want. It’s a very serious issue. As for the recent demands for 'an open and independent investigation,’ it’s just disgraceful," Lavrov added.

According to him, no one knows what was done to Navalny in Germany in 2020. "When he felt sick on a flight, the plane immediately landed and an ambulance was already waiting for him [in the Russian city of Omsk]. Doctors in Omsk started to provide him with the necessary treatment," the top diplomat went on to say. "Following a request from [Navalny’s] wife, the Germans said they would take him to their country immediately. After he was brought to Germany, the doctors at a city hospital who studied his samples found no evidence to support the accusations that had been made against us. He then was transferred to a military hospital belonging to the Bundeswehr, where they said that the traces of a Novichok agent had been found in his body," Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister noted that Moscow had asked Germany to share the lab results. "We were told, ‘No, it’s not your business. We accuse you of poisoning him but we won’t show you the lab results; we will instead send them to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’," Lavrov recalled. "We contacted the organization and they said that, ‘Yes, we received the lab results but we were told not to show them to anyone.’ That’s it, full circle," he concluded.

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Foreign policy Sergey Lavrov

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