MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. Western countries are delaying the clarification of the situation around the incident with Russian blogger Alexey Navalny, concealing essential information, Alexander Shulgin, Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands and Russia’s envoy at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said at an online press conference.
"It’s they that are actually delaying the clarification of the situation. There’s an assumption that all this has been cooked up with the aim of seeking new excuses to put pressure on Russia. The health and condition of our blogger interests them only to a certain degree,’’ the diplomat said.
There’s no sign at the moment that the OPCW is ready for dialog about this incident and Russia regularly receives nothing but formal answers that lack any substance from Western colleagues, he said.
"This is true for the Germans, French and Swedes. They conceal essential information, let alone the composition of the chemical substance. It’s important that we have it to complete our pre-investigation probe to identify any signs of corpus delicti in what happened with the blogger last year. If these signs are identified, a criminal case will be started, but unfortunately we are being denied access to this information," the envoy said.
Navalny was hospitalized in Omsk on August 20, 2020, after he fell sick during a flight. He was later transported to Berlin for treatment. The German government made a statement on September 2 that the blogger was exposed to a toxic agent from the Novichok family. According to Berlin, these conclusions were confirmed by laboratories in France and Sweden. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, has repeatedly said that no toxic agents had been found before Navalny was transported to Berlin and said Moscow was ready for comprehensive cooperation with Berlin.