Russia accused Friday, September 25 Germany of "
categorically refusing
" to cooperate in the investigations of the Russian police on the suspected poisoning of the opponent Alexeï Navalny, treated in Berlin, version that Moscow continues to question.
Read also: Navalny affair: the Novichok, fatal in a few drops
Russian police said in August that they had launched preliminary checks after Mr. Navalny's hospitalization in Siberia, refusing to open an official criminal investigation, saying they did not have sufficient evidence to support the poisoning thesis, while this was at the same time confirmed by three European laboratories.
The Russian police and public prosecutor's office said they had sent requests for legal assistance to Germany, France and Sweden, where these three laboratories are located, which remained "
unanswered
".
"
Categorical refusal
"
"
We have received a categorical refusal from the German government to cooperate to establish the truth about the situation of Alexey Navalny,
" the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, accusing Berlin of having "
launched a vast campaign to accuse the Russian authorities for allegedly poisoning
"the main opponent of the Kremlin.
"
Contrary to its obligations (...) the German government actively opposes the preliminary control to the investigation into this incident carried out in Russia
", he continued.
On the contrary, Alexeï Navalny's allies accuse the Russian authorities of dragging out the procedures launched by the police so as not to have to open a criminal investigation.
The opponent has himself repeatedly derided, in his first statements since coming out of a coma, the Kremlin's changing version of what happened to him, Moscow sometimes questioning the thesis of the poisoning, sometimes suggesting that he might have been poisoned by the Western secret services, by his own allies, or even that he had poisoned himself.
Released from Berlin hospital, Alexeï Navalny must still follow a long rehabilitation program after this poisoning, according to Europeans, committed with a nerve agent of the Novichok type, a substance designed for military purposes in Soviet times.