Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman brushed off allegations Thursday that the Kremlin was involved in poisoning Putin’s most determined critic, accusing Germany of not providing Moscow with any evidence about the condition of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.
Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator, fell ill on a flight to Moscow on Aug. 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk. He has been in an induced coma for more than a week in a Berlin hospital after being flown from Siberia to Germany for treatment more than a week ago.
German authorities said Wednesday that tests showed “proof without doubt” that he had been poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Thursday that Russian authorities still had not received any evidence from Germany to back up their allegation.