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Wednesday, 26 August 2020_Russia says there are still no grounds for a probe of the alleged poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who is in a medically-induced coma at a German hospital.
The spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said on Tuesday that the cause of Navalny’s condition had to be identified first.
“First, it is necessary to identify the substance, to find out what caused his condition. It means there should be grounds for an investigation. So far, all we can say is that the patient is in a coma,” Peskov said.
Navalny, 44, collapsed after drinking tea during a flight from the Siberian city of Omsk to the Russian capital of Moscow on Thursday night, and his plane was forced to make an emergency landing due to a sudden deterioration in his health.
Navalny’s team claimed that the drink had been poisoned, accusing Moscow of poisoning the opposition figure and ordering a ban on transporting him in “an attempt on his life.” But he was soon airlifted to Germany for treatment.
German doctors at Berlin’s Charite Hospital, where Navalny was admitted to, said clinical findings indicated he had been poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. They said the specific substance remained unknown.
Peskov said that the hospital had not conclusively identified the substance, and that it was not known why German doctors were “rushing” to use the word “poisoning.”
“Regrettably, the substance has not been identified, samples do not show it,” Peskov said. “If the substance is established and if it is established that this is poisoning, then, of course, this will be a cause for investigation.”
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