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NAVALNY'S ALLEGED POISONING

Berlin sees no reason to refuse consular access to Navalny, leaves it up to him

Earlier, Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung that the German side is not willing to cooperate on the alleged poisoning of the blogger

BERLIN, September 28. /TASS/. The German government doesn’t see any valid reason to refuse Russia consular access to opposition figure Alexey Navalny, but leaves it up to him to decide whether to meet with Russian diplomats, spokesperson for the German government Maria Adebahr told a briefing Monday.

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German government confirms Merkel visited Navalny in hospital

"I would like to reiterate that it is not like it can be read that the German Foreign Ministry allegedly somehow restricted the Russian embassy’s access to Navalny. In a note on September 23, the German Foreign Ministry said that Navalny would be informed that [Russian diplomats] are wishing to pay a consular visit," she said. According to Adebahr, the German government "strictly adheres to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations."

"However, it is naturally like that: Navalny is free to make a decision regarding this consular visit, whether he wants it or not," she claimed.

Earlier, Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung that the German side is not willing to cooperate on the alleged poisoning of Navalny. Nechayev pointed out that the Russian authorities need the test results "to generally launch the procedure of opening criminal proceedings." He also underlined that the diplomats had requested consular access to Navalny, "but this request is still unanswered."

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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