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NAVALNY'S ALLEGED POISONING

Germany says still processing Russia’s second query over Navalny

Berlin confirmed the receipt of the query on September 16

BERLIN, September 21. /TASS/. The German authorities are still processing Russia’s second request for legal assistance over the incident with Russian blogger Alexey Navalny, German Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Adebahr told a news briefing in Berlin in reply to a TASS question.

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Germany hands over Navalny’s test results to OPCW

"The second query is still worked on. It is being checked," she said.

Russian Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) Spokesman Andrei Ivanov said last week the PGO had sent a new request to Germany for legal assistance in the Navalny affair. In its first query the PGO requested answers to nearly 20 questions concerning the patient’s treatment, diagnosis and the results of forensic examinations, as well as a copy of the medical record and biomaterial for comparative analysis. Germany’s Justice Ministry forwarded that query to the authorities of the federal state of Berlin - the German capital’s Federal Office of Justice, which replied that the answers to all these questions could be provided only on the condition of the patient’s consent.

The German authorities confirmed the receipt of the second query on September 16. The Justice Ministry’s official was unable to explain to journalists why its consideration required so much time.

German Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Steffen Seibert told a news briefing, "Russia has everything necessary for the investigation, in the first place, the test samples taken from Navalny." Also, he remarked he was ignorant of the content of the second query.

Navalny case

Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20 after collapsing on a Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk. He fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. On August 22, he was airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital.

On September 2, Berlin claimed that having examined Navalny’s test samples, German government toxicologists had come to the conclusion that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany. He pointed out that no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny’s system prior to his transfer to Berlin. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the German Foreign Office had not provided the Russian ambassador with any proof of its version of the incident.

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