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Mike Pompeo (on August 20): Attempt to "poison a dissident"
Photo: Mike Segar / AP
Five days ago, Donald Trump publicly doubted that Russia was behind the poison attack on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Two days ago he then called for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project to be terminated as a possible reaction to the Kremlin's involvement.
Now his foreign minister goes one step further - and it becomes clear.
According to Mike Pompeo, the attack on Navalny was probably ordered by "high-ranking" members of the Russian government.
There is a "significant possibility" that senior government officials were behind the attack, Pompeo said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
It was an attempt to "poison a dissident".
Moscow rejects any guilt for the state of health of the opponent who is being treated in the Charité clinic in Berlin.
The G7 states, to which the USA and Germany belong, demanded the fastest possible clarification of the case from Russia on Tuesday evening.
Moscow must "urgently" hand over the perpetrators behind the "confirmed poisoning" to the judiciary, according to a joint statement by the G7 foreign ministers.
Russia must "create full transparency of who is responsible".
Any use of chemical weapons is "unacceptable".
Moscow is spreading rumors of alleged poisoning in Germany
According to the German government, it has been proven "beyond any doubt" that the 44-year-old opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin was poisoned in Russia with a chemical nerve agent from the so-called Novichok group.
Navalny was flown to Berlin from Russia on August 22nd with symptoms of poisoning.
The doctors at the Siberian hospital where Navalny was initially treated had, according to their own statements and according to the Kremlin, found no poison in his body.
Most recently, theories around the Kremlin were launched, according to which Navalny in Berlin could have been poisoned by Germans or could have consumed poison himself.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the West's statements about a poison attack on Navalny should be met with a "good dose of skepticism".
First, Berlin would have to comply with Russia's request for legal assistance anyway.
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