The poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was probably not intended to kill him, but to make him lifeless, according to Russian chemist Will Mirzayanov, who once participated in the development of the poisonous war substance “Novichok”.
“Probably the goal was not to kill, but to make him disabled and ‘knock out of the ordinary,'” the scientist, who currently lives in the United States, told an interview with the Estonian public broadcaster Err.ee. “It’s a terrible revenge, because there’s a good chance that Navalny will actually remain disabled.”
Mirzayanov has expressed confidence that the Russian military intelligence service, the Central Intelligence Agency (GRU), is responsible for poisoning Navalny. According to him, the lesser-known substance A-242 from the Novičok series was used for poisoning, which is very toxic – ten milligrams is enough to kill a person, so poison planners and poisoners were apparently sure that the poison would disappear from his body within two to three days.
“GRU is evolving and learning from its mistakes. It was sure that the poison would disappear from the body,” the scientist concluded. However, according to him, today’s powerful chromatographs and mass spectrometers allow you to find even very small traces of matter. However, neither in Omsk, where Navalny was originally hospitalized, nor in other Russian cities, there are no such facilities, because they are very expensive, but in Moscow they should be, but “information from Moscow goes through special services, so you can not believe it,” he said. .
“Previously, we did not know that this substance remains in the liver (..) and does not dissolve, but the Germans knew it, and with this knowledge performed analyzes for Navalny,” Mirzayanov added.
He was skeptical of the Russian Prosecutor’s Office’s request that Germany send the details of the medical examination carried out to Navalny before initiating a criminal investigation. According to the scientist, this is a trick of the Kremlin with the aim of dragging the German side into endless discussions and delaying the time for the issue to lose its relevance.
On August 20, Navalni was unconsciously taken to Omsk Hospital in Siberia with signs of poisoning, but two days later he was transferred from Russia to Germany, where he was treated at the Charite clinic at the University of Berlin.
As the German government said on September 2, there is indisputable evidence that Navalny has been poisoned by a nerve-paralyzing warfare substance belonging to the Novichok group.
In 2018, the former Russian double agent Sergei Skrippa and his daughter Julia were poisoned in Great Britain with the nerve paralyzing substance “Novichok” created in the Soviet Union. They were hospitalized in critical condition but later recovered.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Moscow to investigate the poisoning of Navalny, to find out and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Moscow is ready to work with Germany to clarify the situation around Navalny, but Berlin has not responded to Moscow’s official requests. He also claimed that before Navalny was transferred to Germany, he underwent a “complete set of analyzes in Russia in accordance with all international standards”, but no toxic substances were found.
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