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OPCW conceals crucial information in Navalny case — Russian representative

Alexander Shulgin specified that the OPCW concealed from Russia the formula of the chemical compound that had allegedly poisoned Navalny

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. The Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons continues to conceal crucial information in the case of Russian blogger Alexey Navalny, Russia’s representative to OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, said on the YouTube channel Solovyov Live.

"The Technical Secretariate continues to conceal crucial information as to whether there were any video recordings or photographs of investigative actions the OPCW team carried out in Berlin and of how the separation of test samples taken was done in The Hague before sending them to certified OPCW laboratories," he said.

Shulgin stressed that the OPCW concealed from Russia the formula of the chemical compound that had allegedly poisoned Navalny.

"They do not disclose the formula," he said. "In their reply to our latest query the Germans replicated the wording of the OPCW report to the effect they provided technical assistance, in other words, they found in Navalny’s system biomarkers of a cholinesterase inhibitor having similar parameters with those of chemical compounds mentioned in addenda 1.14A and 1.15A to the chemical convention. They do not say anything else."

The Russian representative said that Russia had sent a note through the OPCW to the Western countries containing questions about the Navalny case. No answers on the merits have been provided to most of these questions.

"We find the answers unsatisfactory. They are pseudo answers. And most questions have been left without a reply," Shulgin said.

Alexey Navalny was taken to a hospital in Omsk on August 20, 2020, after collapsing on board a plane. Later, he was taken to Berlin for treatment. The German government on September 2, 2020, claimed that the blogger was affected by a toxic agent from the Novichok family. Berlin argued that laboratories in France and Sweden confirmed these conclusions. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly said that Moscow was ready for all-round cooperation with Germany. He stressed that before his transportation to Berlin no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny's system.

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