The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that Germany had requested its assistance in the investigation into the suspected poisoning of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny with a banned toxic chemical, while Britain confirmed the poisoning of Nafalni and requested clarifications from Russia.
The Hague-based organization said in a statement today, Thursday, that it had received a request from Germany for technical assistance, and added that its experts had collected vital medical samples from Russian exhibitions for analysis in its selected laboratories.
Germany says that laboratory tests in 3 countries have proven that he has been poisoned by the nerve gas Novichok, and Western governments have called on Russia to provide an explanation.
It is noteworthy that Novichok had been used to poison former Russian spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury in 2018. Tests conducted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed the use of a highly toxic substance in their poisoning.
In this context, Britain said on Wednesday that Russia should respond to questions about the poisoning of Navalny, especially since it is almost certain that the Russian intelligence services carried out the attack with a chemical weapon dating back to the Soviet era, known as Novichok.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, speaking alongside his US counterpart Mike Pompeo in Washington, said he welcomed Navalny's recovery.
But Russia has an issue that must be answered because the use of a chemical weapon is unacceptable.
Navalny posted on social media a picture of him from a hospital in Berlin last Tuesday, sitting in bed and surrounded by his family, and said that he was now able to breathe normally after being poisoned in Siberia last month.
Navalny, a prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell ill during a campaign on 20 August and was flown to Berlin.