Alexeï Navalny: Finland would have served as an intermediary between Berlin and Moscow

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Alexeï Navalny arrived in Berlin this Saturday to be treated in the Charité University Hospital, after intense negotiations. Finland would have served as an intermediary between Berlin and Moscow.

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With our correspondent in Berlin, Nathalie Versieux

At no time did Angela Merkel try to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to obtain the transfer of Navalny to a hospital in Berlin. It is to an intermediary, Finnish President Niinistö, that the Chancellor is said to have addressed. Which would then have contacted Putin, who would have given the green light from the Kremlin. At least that is what the Finnish president told the radio on Saturday. When questioned, the presidency confined itself to confirming that the Putin-Niinistö meeting had indeed taken place, and that there was question of Belarus and Navalny's health.

German diplomacy has apparently avoided irritating the Kremlin at all times over the case of the Russian opponent. Over the past few days the Chancellor, her Vice-Chancellor and the Foreign Minister had simply repeated that Germany was ready to welcome Navalny if it was his family's wish.

And it was only on Saturday, once Navalny arrived in Germany, that the President of the Republic Franck Walter Steinmeier asked that all the light be shed on a possible poisoning.

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• Russia
• Germany
• Finland

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