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Russia’s OPCW envoy points to new inconsistencies in Navalny saga

The envoy notes that a group of experts to provide technical assistance in connection with the alleged poisoning of Alexey Navalny was sent at Germany’s request as far back as August 20, 2020

Alexey Navalny Moscow City Court Press Office/TASS

Alexey Navalny

© Moscow City Court Press Office/TASS

THE HAGUE, July 6. /TASS/. The saga over the alleged poisoning of blogger Alexey Navalny continues to raise numerous questions as more inconsistencies, along with unclear and confusing instances keep on surfacing, Russian Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Alexander Shulgin told the 97th session of the OPCW Executive Council on Tuesday.

According to him, OPCW members were misled that the organization’s experts had arrived in Germany only on September 4-5, 2020. "At Germany’s request, the Technical Secretariat sent a group of experts to provide technical assistance in connection with the alleged poisoning of a Russian national as far back as August 20, 2020," Shulgin pointed out, citing one of the organization’s documents. "That said, it happened right at the time when Navalny… started to show the first signs of deteriorating health while on board Flight 2614, which led to his hospitalization in Omsk," he added.

"We demand an adequate explanation as to how this could have happened," the Russian envoy said.

Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20, 2020, after collapsing on a Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk. He was later airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital. The German authorities claimed that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that no poisonous substances were detected in Navalny’s body prior to his transfer to Berlin.

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