Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he had personally given permission for his transfer to Germany for treatment after the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“As soon as this citizen’s wife approached me, I immediately ordered the prosecutor’s office to examine his options for going abroad for treatment,” Putin said during the Valday forum.
“It could also have been omitted because he had restrictions on judicial investigations and criminal cases,” the Kremlin leader added, traditionally avoiding calling him Navalny.
He also said that if the authorities had wanted to poison someone, they would not have sent him to Berlin for treatment.
On April 20, Navalny was reportedly ill during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, the pilot made an emergency landing at Omsk airport, and Navalny was unconsciously taken to Omsk hospital with signs of poisoning. On August 22, Navalny was transferred from Russia to Germany, where he was treated by the Charite clinic at the University of Berlin.
On 2 September, Germany stated that indisputable evidence had been obtained that Navalny had been poisoned by a nerve-paralyzing warfare substance belonging to the Novichok group.
This conclusion has also been confirmed by laboratories in France and Sweden, as well as by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Navalny, who was discharged from a Berlin hospital on September 22, said that Putin himself was behind his poisoning.
Western countries have asked Russia for explanations, but the Kremlin has denied any involvement in the assassination attempt.
–
