Navalny: after Berlin poisoning accusations, Moscow awaits proof

Russian opponent Alexey Navalny, September 8, 2019 in Moscow.

REUTERS / Tatyana Makeyeva

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The Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny was poisoned with the help of a powerful neurotoxicant "of the Novichok type", announced Wednesday Angela Merkel.

According to the German Chancellor, "very serious questions are now being asked, questions which only the Russian government can and must answer".

This declaration elicited many diplomatic reactions.

In Russia, the authorities are awaiting proof.

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With our correspondent in Moscow,

At the moment, the Kremlin is unable to respond to

.

This is what the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, indicated on Wednesday evening.

Officially, Moscow has made requests for access to medical information from the German side.

Requests that have remained unanswered to date, according to the Kremlin, which claims to be ready and interested " 

" with Germany.

At the same time, Russian diplomacy swept aside official statements from Berlin.

" 

 ", according to Maria Zakharova, its representative.

So far, Moscow justifies its reservation on the subject by the absence of evidence supporting the thesis of poisoning.

The Russian doctors who took care of Alexeï Navalny in Siberia have, for their part, always ruled out this possibility.

For those around the opponent, the poisoning was a certainty.

Ivan Zhdanov, one of his closest collaborators, is now categorical: the detection of a Novichok-type substance directly implicates the Russian state.

According to doctors, the state of health of the Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, hospitalized at the Berlin Charité hospital, continues to improve.

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♦ Skripal affair: the spy who poisons relations between Westerners and Moscow

In 2018, the use of this same Novichok for the first time and moreover on European soil had sparked a serious diplomatic crisis between the West and the Kremlin.

Originally, what is called the "  

 ", named after the former Russian agent accused of treason by Moscow for the benefit of London, via this product of Soviet design.

The case begins on March 4, 2018 when

are found unconscious on a bench in a shopping center in a city 140 kilometers south-west of London.

After hospitalization and investigation, for

, it is Moscow that is behind this assassination attempt.

Unfounded accusations according to Vladimir Putin.

Moscow even announced in mid-March the expulsion of 23 British diplomats.

Ten days later, the Westerners responded: 18 countries of the European Union, but also the United States, Ukraine, Canada, Norway, Australia in turn announced the expulsions of diplomats: 122 Russians in total.

At the end of March, Moscow retaliated with the dismissal of 121 Western diplomats, including 60 in the United States.

Six months after the poisoning, London closed its investigation and issued an arrest warrant against two suspects, two "officers" of the Russian intelligence services.

In front of the British Parliament, Theresa May points an accusing finger.

" 

said the head of government, was  

 ".

Theresa May, supported on this point by France, Germany, the United States and Canada.

Vladimir Putin ends up talking about "civilians".

On Russian television a few days later, the two suspects declared themselves "not guilty" and said they were waiting for an apology from the British.

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• Angela Merkel

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