Week-ending 27 November 2020
This week the German authorities announced that other items that belonged to Aleksei Navalny, in addition to the water bottle found in his Tomsk hotel room, contained traces of Novichok-type nerve agent. Navalny himself urged the EU to impose sanctions on oligarchs close to President Putin.
Sources:
Meduza, Wednesday, 25 November 2020: Other items belonging to Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny — in addition to the poisoned water bottle found in his Tomsk hotel room — contained traces of a Novichok-type nerve agent, German officials confirmed on Wednesday, November 25. The confirmation came in response to a question from the right-wing party Alternative for Germany. The party asked whether or not any of Navalny’s other things had traces of a Novichok-type poison. The German government replied “yes” without providing any further details. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh told Mediazonathat the German authorities did not inform them of any other items containing traces of a poisonous substance. Alternative for Germany also asked a number of questions about the water bottle found in Navalny’s hotel room. The German government responded to most of these questions by saying that they didn’t have any information to provide.
The Guardian, Friday, 27 November 2020: The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called on the EU to impose sanctions on Kremlin-linked Russian oligarchs including the Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, calling Vladimir Putin and his entourage “a bunch of criminals who temporarily took over power” in the country. Navalny was one of four Russian opposition politicians to address the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Friday by video link. He is recovering in Germany from a poisoning attempt in August but has said he plans to return to Russia. He fell ill on a flight from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow, and German specialists determined he had been poisoned with a novichok nerve agent. He has accused Putin of ordering his poisoning, a claim the Kremlin has denied.
