Tests carried out on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny showed that he was poisoned by a Novichok chemical nerve agent, the German government said Wednesday, demanding explanations from Moscow.
“It is a shocking event that Alexei Navalny has become the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve agent in Russia,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in a statement.
“The government condemns this attack in the strongest terms. The Russian government is urgently requested to provide clarifications over the incident.”
Tests carried out by the German army in consultation with the Charite hospital in Berlin, where Navalny is being treated, had found “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok family,” Seibert said.
Navalny, 44, fell ill after boarding a plane in Siberia last month. He was initially treated in a local hospital before being flown to Berlin for treatment.
The Charite hospital has reported “some improvement” in Navalny’s condition but he nevertheless remains in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator.