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Alexei Navalny says he believes Vladimir Putin was behind poisoning Alexei Navalny says he believes Vladimir Putin was behind poisoning
(about 3 hours later)
Russian opposition figure poisoned by nerve agent says he has no ‘other versions’ of how crime was committed Russian opposition figure poisoned with nerve agent says he has no ‘other versions’ of how crime was committed
The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who is recovering in Germany after being poisoned with a nerve agent in Russia, has accused Vladimir Putin of being behind the attack, in an interview with a German newspaper. The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he believes Vladimir Putin ordered intelligence agencies to poison him, possibly to avoid a “Belarusian scenario” of civil unrest.
Navalny’s supporters have frequently maintained that such an attack could only have been ordered at the top levels, though the Kremlin has steadfastly denied any involvement in it. Navalny, who is recovering in Germany after falling ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow in August, told the news magazine Der Spiegel that the use of the rare nerve agent novichok meant the assault on his life would have been ordered from the top.
Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is Putin’s fiercest critic, was flown to Germany two days after falling ill on 20 August on a domestic flight in Russia. “I assert that Putin was behind the crime, and I have no other explanation for what happened”, Navalny said in his first interview since the poisoning. “Only three people can give orders to put into action ‘active measures’ and use novichok. Those who know Russian states of affairs also know: FSB director Alexander Bortnikov, foreign intelligence service head Sergey Naryshkin and the director of GRU cannot make such a decision without Putin’s orders.”
He spent 32 days in the hospital, 24 of them in intensive care, before doctors deemed that his condition had improved sufficiently for him to be discharged. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian Duma, responded to Navalny’s accusations against Putin by calling the opposition leader a “shameless scoundrel”.
He has posted frequent comments online as his recovery has progressed, but in his first interview since the attack he told Der Spiegel that in his mind “Putin was behind the attack”. “Putin saved his life. If what happened to him was a specially directed operation by western security services then this accusation fits with the logic. He was saved by everyone, from the pilots and doctors to the president,” Volodin said.
“I don’t have any other versions of how the crime was committed,” he said in a brief excerpt of the interview conducted in Berlin on Wednesday and to be released in full online later on Thursday. Russian officials have variously suggested that Navalny was not poisoned at all, that he poisoned himself, or that western spy agencies poisoned him.
Navalny was initially treated in a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk, where Russian doctors said they found no trace of any poisoning, before he was transported to Berlin. German chemical weapons experts determined that he had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok – findings corroborated by labs in France and Sweden. Navalny, when asked why Putin would have resorted to methods of chemical warfare – which in the past had been reserved for acts of retribution against former intelligence officials – pointed to the protests against President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, as well to anti-Kremlin protests in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk.
The nerve agent used in the attack was the same class of poison that Britain said was used on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, called Navalny’s poisoning an attempted murder and she and other world leaders have demanded that Russia fully investigate the case. “The Kremlin notices that it needs to take extreme measures to avoid a ‘Belarusian scenario’,” he told Der Spiegel. “The system is fighting for survival, and we have just started to feel the consequences.”
Russia has bristled at the demands for an investigation, saying Germany needs to share medical data in the case or compare notes with Russian doctors. Germany has noted that Russian doctors have their own samples from Navalny since he was in their care for 48 hours. The plane on which Navalny fell ill on 20 August made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he spent two days in a coma before being flown by a medical jet to Berlin.
Germany has enlisted the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for technical assistance. The agency has collected independent samples from Navalny for testing. The results have not yet been announced. Asked why Putin would have allowed him to leave the country if he were behind the attack, Navalny said he had been saved by his situation becoming a “reality show” that was watched around the world.
German doctors have said Navalny could make a full recovery, though they have not ruled out the possibility of long-term damage from the nerve agent. “I believe they were determined not to let me leave the country, and that is why they publicly declared I was not in a fit state to be transported,” Navalny said. “They were waiting for me to die. But because of support for me and the efforts of my wife, the whole thing turned into a kind of reality show, with the title ‘Navalny dies in Omsk’ .
Der Spiegel said Navalny was joking and alert in the interview but his hands shook so much that it was difficult for him to drink from a bottle of water. “For Putin’s people it is important that they don’t lend their enemies a victim status. If I had died in Omsk or left with permanent damage there, then the responsibility would have clearly been with them.”
He reiterated what his team has previously said, that he planned on returning to Russia when he was able. The founding leader of the Russia of the Future party said he believed he was poisoned via a contaminated surface in his room at the hotel Xander in Tomsk, possibly because intelligence agencies had learned lessons from the failed 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
“My job now is to remain the guy who isn’t scared,” he was quoted as saying. “And I’m not scared.” “I believe that they drew conclusion from the … [Salisbury] case, when 48 people were contaminated and an uninvolved woman died. That is why the poison was probably not applied to an object that I may not even use, like the sink or the shower. Or my mobile phone, which I might have handed to [his spokesperson] Kira [Yarmish]. I am only speculating. It appears that we are dealing with a sophisticated substance, and it was applied to an object only I would touch.”
Describing the moment in the aeroplane when the poison started to take effect, Navalny said: “You feel no pain, but you know you’re dying. And I mean right now. Even though nothing hurts you … you just think: this is the end.”
While Der Spiegel reported that Navalny had lost 12kg (26lb) in weight, the Russian activist said his health was improving steadily and doctors had told him he might recover “90, maybe even 100%”.
“Basically, I’m a bit of a guinea pig,” he said. “There aren’t many people you can observe who are still alive after being poisoned with a nerve agent.”
Navalny remains at the Charité hospital in Berlin, where he confirmed that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had visited him. “I was impressed by how well she knows Russia and my case. Some details she knows better than me.”
Merkel has condemned the poisoning more strongly than many people expected, but governments across the EU have struggled to find an effective way of extracting answers from the Kremlin over the case.
Navalny declined to endorse stopping the Nord Stream 2 Russian gas pipeline project as a retaliation: “That’s Germany’s business”, he said. “Decide for yourself.” He said sanctions against Russia were ineffective. “What we need are fine against specific culprits, and I tell you: 95% of Russian citizens would welcome this.”
Despite the attempt on his life, he wants to return to Russia. “My job now is to remain the guy who isn’t afraid. And I’m not afraid. When my hands shake, it’s not from fear, it’s from this stuff. I would not give Putin the gift of not returning to Russia.”