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Associated Press

The Kremlin brushed off allegations Tuesday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was the victim of an intentional poisoning orchestrated by authorities and said there were no grounds for a criminal investigation so far since it has not been fully established what caused the politician to fall into a coma.
The insistence by the Russian government that Navalny was not necessarily poisoned – comments amplified by Russian doctors and pro-Kremlin media – came a day after doctors at a German hospital where the 44-year-old is being treated said tests indicated he was poisoned.
Moscow’s dismissals elicited outrage from Navalny’s allies, who say the Kremlin was behind the illness of its most prominent critic.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the accusations against the government “absolutely cannot be true and are rather an empty noise”.
“We do not intend to take it seriously,” Peskov said.

Peskov said he saw no grounds for launching a criminal investigation at this stage, saying that Navalny’s condition could have been triggered by a variety of causes and determining what it was should come before such a probe.
“If a substance [that caused the condition] is found, and if it is determined that it is poisoning, then there will be a reason for an investigation,” Peskov said.
Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Thursday and was taken to a hospital in the city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing.
Tests show Kremlin critic Navalny was poisoned, German doctors say
Over the weekend, he was transferred to the Charité hospital in Berlin, where doctors on Monday said they have found indications of “cholinesterase inhibitors” in his system.
These act by blocking the breakdown of a key chemical in the body, acetylcholine, that sends signals between nerve cells. Navalny is being treated with the antidote atropine.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, has been visiting her husband daily and made no comment to reporters as she arrived Tuesday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel personally offered Germany’s help in treating Navalny and has called for a full Russian investigation – a sentiment echoed Tuesday by officials from the United States, France and Norway.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that if reports about Navalny’s poisoning “prove accurate, the United States supports the EU’s call for a comprehensive investigation and stands ready to assist in that effort”.
In response to statements from European officials, the speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament house, charged Tuesday that Navalny’s condition could have resulted from a Western plot.
Putin critic Navalny ‘will survive’ suspected poisoning, says activist
Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin in tasked lawmakers to look into what happened to Navalny to make sure it wasn’t “an attempt by foreign states to inflict harm on the health of a Russian citizen and create tension in Russia” in order to “come up with more accusations” against the country.
Charité said Monday that Navalny had undergone extensive examination by a team of physicians and that “clinical findings indicate poisoning with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors.”
That covers a broad range of substances that are found in several drugs, but also in pesticides and nerve agents. Charité said the specific substance to which Navalny was exposed isn’t yet known but that a further series of comprehensive tests had been started.


The suggestion that Navalny was poisoned has been vehemently rejected in Russia, where a number of Kremlin critics fell victims to suspected poisonings in recent years, since last week. Government officials, medical specialists and state-controlled media offered a variety of possible explanations for Navalny’s condition.
Doctors in Omsk, a city in Siberia where Navalny was first hospitalised, ruled out poisoning as a diagnosis 24 hours after the politician was admitted and said “a metabolic disorder” was a likely diagnosis.
The editor-in-chief of the RT state-funded TV channel, Margarita Simonyan, speculated that the politician must have suffered from a sharp drop in blood sugar. Some pro-Kremlin news outlets alleged that Navalny mixed moonshine with sleeping pills.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny ‘under surveillance’ before falling ill
The Charité statement on Monday prompted another array of denials.
The chief intensivist with Russia’s Heath Ministry, Igor Molchanov, questioned whether detecting “substances affecting cholinesterase” five days after Navalny fell ill was at all possible.
Doctors in Omsk said they tested the politician for cholinesterase inhibitors and did not find any.
Peskov said Tuesday that specialists in Omsk noted “lowered levels of cholinesterase” – an obstruction of cholinesterase enzymes can be detected by blood tests, experts say – in his body in a matter of “hours” after he was brought in, but that it could have been triggered by a number of causes, including by “taking various medications”.

Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, on Tuesday said the government’s reluctance to launch an investigation was expected.
“It was obvious that the crime would not be properly investigated and a culprit found. However, we all know perfectly well who that is,” Yarmysh tweeted.
Western experts have cautioned that it is far too early to draw any conclusions about how the agent may have entered Navalny’s system, but note that Novichok, the Soviet-era nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain, was a cholinesterase inhibitor.
Russia says ‘no trace’ of poison in Navalny, refuses to let him leave
“Cholinesterase inhibitor poisons can be given in many ways, they can be transported in many forms, and are very potent,” said Dr. Richard Parsons, a senior lecturer in biochemical toxicology at King’s College London. “This is why they are a favoured method of poisoning people.”
Dr. Thomas Hartung, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland, said such substances are easy to detect, even days and weeks after the poisoning, and that “we will know soon which substance was used.”
“The Novichok nerve agents, used in the 2018 poisoning of the Russian double agent Skripal in England, also belong to this category of substance,” he said. “I said at the time that the Russians could have just left a business card at the crime scene, because the substances can be so clearly traced.”


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Vladimir Putin

Kremlin brushes off allegations that it poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny takes part in a rally in Moscow. Photo: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting via video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

25 August 2020, Berlin: A general view of the building of the Charite University Hospital, where prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being treated from suspected poisoning. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa

Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader and President Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny, arrives at the Charite Mitte Hospital Complex, in Berlin, Germany, August 25, 2020. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned, German tests show

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny delivers a speech in September 2019. Doctors say test results indicate he was poisoned. Photo: AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a press conference after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at Fort de Bregancon, in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, on August 20, 2020. Christophe Simon/Pool via REUTERS

24 August 2020, Berlin: Julia, wife of the Russian oppositional Alexej Nawalny, arrives at the Charite University Hospital, where Navalny is being treated from suspected poisoning. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Charite hospital in Berlin, where Alexei Navalny is being treated.

Putin critic Alexei Navalny ‘will survive’ suspected poisoning, under guard in German hospital

A man holds a poster with a portrait of Alexei Navalny reading “Navalny was poisoned, we know who is to blame, Alexei you must live” during a protest in Khabarovsk, Russia on Saturday. Photo: AP

24 August 2020, Berlin: Police vehicles are parked in front of the Charite University Hospital, where prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being treated from suspected poisoning. Navalny, who is still fighting for his life, was taken ill on a flight to Moscow on Thursday and flown to Germany on Saturday for emergency treatment in Berlin. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

"Cinema for Peace" founder Jaka Bizilj is seen at the Charite Mitte Hospital Complex, where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is receiving medical treatment, in Berlin, Germany August 22, 2020. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

epa08620171 Yulia Navalny leaves Charite hospital where Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny (not in the picture) stays for treatment in Berlin, Germany, 23 August 2020. Navalny was first placed in an hospital in Omsk, Russia, after he felt bad on board of a plane on his way from Tomsk to Moscow. The flight was interrupted and after landing in Omsk Navalny was delivered to hospital with a suspicion on a toxic poisoning. The hospital management agreed on 21 August 2020 to transport Navalny to a German hospital for further treatment. EPA-EFE/FILIP SINGER

Russia’s Alexei Navalny ‘under intense police surveillance’ before falling ill of suspected poisoning

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny pictured last July. Photo: EPA

A man holds a poster with a portrait of Alexei Navalny reading "Navalny was poisoned, we know who is to blame, Alexei you must live" during an unsanctioned protest in support of Sergei Furgal, the governor of the Khabarovsk region, in Khabarovsk, 6,100 kilometers (3,800 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who is in a coma after a suspected poisoning, has arrived in Berlin on a special flight for treatment by specialists. The politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics was thought to be in stable condition on arrival Saturday and is to be treated in the German capital's main hospital. (AP Photo/Igor Volkov)

epa08619501 Members of police stand in front of Charite clinic where Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny (not in the picture) stays for treatment in Berlin, Germany, 23 August 2020. Navalny was first placed in an hospital in Omsk, Russia, after he felt bad on board of a plane on his way from Tomsk to Moscow. The flight was interrupted and after landing in Omsk Navalny was delivered to hospital with a suspicion on a toxic poisoning. The hospital management agreed on 21 August 2020 to transport Navalny to a German hospital for further treatment. EPA-EFE/CLEMENS BILAN

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was transferred to a German hospital for treatment after a suspected poisoning left him comatose. Photo: EPA

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Official spokesman says there is not need for a criminal investigation into the incident
Moscow’s dismissals elicited outrage from Navalny’s allies



Official spokesman says there is not need for a criminal investigation into the incident.


Kremlin brushes off allegations that it poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Official spokesman says there is not need for a criminal investigation into the incident Moscow’s dismissals elicited outrage from Navalny’s allies

Official spokesman says there is not need for a criminal investigation into the incident

Moscow’s dismissals elicited outrage from Navalny’s allies