It is now clear that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by novitiate.
- It is completely unlikely that such an attack on such a well-known figure could have been carried out without the approval of the absolute highest authorities in Russia, perhaps even President Vladimir Putin himself.
Germany demands an investigation, how will the Russian government react to it?
- It will say "We know nothing, the information is uncertain, the German authorities will not give us the details we need to be able to cooperate and that makes us think that this is not true".
Bert Sundström believes that Russia will launch the same apparatus as after Skripal - misinformation, denial and attempts to confuse so that at least people in Russia will believe that it was not something that Russia was behind.
"A signal to everyone in the opposition"
Martin Kragh, head of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Foreign Policy Institute (UI) agrees.
- This type of preparation is under strict control of the security service, says Martin Kragh to TT.
According to him, the people behind the poisoning want to send a signal to everyone in the Russian opposition.
- Indirectly also a signal to all who demonstrate and protest against the oppression in Belarus.
If you look at it in the wider context, the leaders of the Kremlin and the Russian security service are deeply concerned that developments in Belarus are going in the wrong direction, from their perspective, Martin Kragh tells TT.
There may be other explanations, but we will never find out, he says.
- The problem is, of course, that we will never get answers to our questions, as long as the current leaders remain.