A confirmation which removes the final doubts that may remain as to the causes of the deterioration in the state of health of the Russian opponent.
Two laboratories, one French and the other Swedish, confirmed this Monday morning that Alexeï Navalny, who came out of a coma last week, was indeed poisoned with the toxic agent Novichok in mid-August.
In reaction, Emmanuel Macron, who spoke in the morning with Russian President Vladimir Putin, denounced an "assassination attempt".
"A clarification is necessary from Russia within the framework of a credible and transparent investigation", asked the head of state to his Russian counterpart, specifying that "France shares, on the basis of its own analyzes , the conclusions of several of its European partners on the facts of poisoning using a Novichok nerve agent ”.
So far, France had only expressed itself on this affair within the framework of the G7 and the EU at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Russia's epidermal reaction
Placed in August in intensive care in a Siberian hospital after having fainted in a plane, Alexeï Navalny, number one opponent to the Kremlin, was transferred to Germany.
German doctors say they have found traces of poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent, a substance designed in Soviet times for military purposes.
Western critics have multiplied on the subject last week.
The EU has raised possible sanctions and Angela Merkel has indicated that Germany does not rule out the freezing of the project of its flagship gas pipeline with Russia, Nord Stream 2, which is to supply Europe with Russian gas via the sea. Baltic.
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On Tuesday, the G7 countries, including France, also urged Moscow to bring "urgently" to justice the authors of "the confirmed poisoning" of Alexey Navalny, denouncing as "unacceptable" any use of chemical weapons.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for his part, estimated that the poisoning of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny was probably orchestrated by Russian “senior officials”.
The Kremlin counterattacked saying that "any attempt to associate Russia in any way with what has happened is unacceptable."
This affair is a blow to the Franco-Russian dialogue, which Emmanuel Macron had tried to revive by reaching out to Vladimir Putin, causing trouble among some of his European allies.