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German politician questions credibility of accusations hurled at Russia over Navalny case

The German government said on Wednesday, citing the results of a toxicological analysis carried out by Bundeswehr experts, that Navalny had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent

Alexei Navalny Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Alexei Navalny

© Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

BERLIN, September 3./TASS/. European Parliament member from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Maximilian Krah expressed doubts on Thursday about the credibility of accusations hurled at Russia over the alleged poisoning of Russian blogger Alexei Navalny.

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Kremlin sees no reason to blame Navalny incident on Russia

"As for the credibility of the accusations against the Kremlin, one can at least doubt this," the DPA news agency quoted him as saying on Thursday. His fellow party member Paul Hampel, an expert on foreign policy from the AfD faction in the Bundestag, expressed the opinion that "Navalny had enemies outside the Kremlin as well." "The German government should be advised to act constructively and farsightedly," he said.

AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla, for his part, cautioned the German government against questioning the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project and consequently "the energy security of Germany" in light of the situation around Navalny’s alleged poisoning with an assumed Novichok nerve agent. At the same time, "there is no doubt that the poisoning of Navalny must be clarified," he stressed.

The German government said on Wednesday, citing the results of a toxicological analysis carried out by Bundeswehr experts, that Navalny had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.

When commenting on that statement, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was ready to fully cooperate with Germany in order to establish all circumstances surrounding the Navalny case. Before the blogger was flown to Germany, medical tests had detected no traces of any toxic substances in his body, Peskov added. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in turn, said that the German Foreign Ministry had failed to provide any evidence of poisoning to the Russian ambassador.

On August 20, a plane carrying Navalny made an emergency landing in the Russian city of Omsk after the blogger had suddenly felt ill in mid-flight. Navalny was taken to the hospital in a coma and was hooked up to a ventilator. On August 22, he was flown to Germany for treatment at Berlin’s Charite hospital.

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