Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Alexander Shulgin accused Western countries of hiding data on the situation with the founder of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK, included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent) Alexei Navalny. His words at the 96th session of the executive board of the organization were reported by RIA Novosti.
According to Shulgin, the countries were called “ridiculous excuses” to avoid answering Russian inquiries. In particular, Germany referred to the secrecy of the formula of the discovered toxic substance. Allegedly, the disclosure of this information would allow the Russian side to understand what knowledge Berlin possesses in the field of chemical weapons. “Then they began to emphasize that Navalny prohibits the transfer of any information to Russia, including his personal data,” he added.
A similar situation has developed when referring to France and Sweden. He added that the behavior of European partners suggests that there is an interest in putting political pressure on Russia and imposing new sanctions behind this. “This is obvious – the concealment of data that is critical for launching an investigation from Russia,” the permanent representative stated.
Navalny was detained on January 17 at the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport upon his return from Germany, where he was receiving treatment. The oppositionist fell into a coma on August 20 last year, he felt bad during the flight from Tomsk to Moscow. On August 22, he was taken to a German clinic, the doctors of which announced that the Russian was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group. Russian doctors found no traces of the poison.
On February 2, Moscow’s Simonovsky Court overturned Navalny’s suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case for violating the terms of the probationary period. He was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. In the colony, according to the decision of the Moscow City Court of February 20, he will stay for 2.5 years. He is currently in jail-3 in Kolchugino in the Vladimir region.