(ANSA) - MOSCOW, OCTOBER 23 - Russian President Vladimir Putin declared last night that he personally authorized the transfer by air ambulance to the Charité hospital in Berlin of his main opponent, Alexiei Navalny, who risked his life for a suspected poisoning at the end of August.
Laboratories in Germany, France, Sweden and Opac experts found traces of Novichok, a powerful neurotoxin developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, in Navalny's analyzes.
"As soon as this citizen's wife appealed to me, I immediately asked the prosecutors to verify the possibility of going abroad for treatment," Putin said on TV, noting that Navalny was able to travel despite restrictions imposed for an investigation.
Navalny collapsed aboard a plane and was hospitalized for two days in a hospital in Omsk before being transported by air ambulance and in a coma to the Berlin Charité clinic.
Initially, Omsk doctors prevented the patient from being transferred by air ambulance by claiming that his condition was unstable.
For his poisoning, the EU has imposed sanctions on six Russian officials, including the director of intelligence services (FSB) Aleksandr Bortnikov.
According to the EU, in fact, the poisoning with Novichok would not have been possible without the involvement of the secret services, the Russian defense ministry and the Kremlin executive office.
(HANDLE).