BERLIN — Laboratories in France and Sweden have confirmed that the substance used to poison the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny was certainly a type of the nerve agent Novichok, the German authorities mentioned on Monday, outcomes that match Berlin’s own findings and supply further confidence that the Russian state was concerned.
“Three laboratories have now independently offered proof of a substance from the Novichok group as the reason for Mr. Navalny’s poisoning,” a German authorities spokesman, Steffen Seibert, mentioned in an announcement. “We renew the decision for Russia to elucidate what has occurred.”
Mr. Navalny, whose room within the prestigious Charité hospital in Berlin stays closely guarded by the German police, continues to enhance, the hospital mentioned in an announcement on Monday. He’s respiration by himself once more and in a position to stroll. “He’s more and more being mobilized and intermittently in a position to go away his sick mattress,” the assertion learn.
Russian officers didn’t instantly reply to information of the outcomes from French and Swedish laboratories, however they’ve insisted since Mr. Navalny first fell ailing that there was no proof he had been poisoned. They’ve advised a number of various theories, together with a drug overdose and low blood sugar.
In his assertion, Mr. Seibert described using Novichok — a class of potent chemical weapons developed by the Soviet Union and used a minimum of as soon as earlier than in an assassination try by Russian intelligence operatives — as a violation of the Chemical Weapons Conference, of which Russia is a signatory.
However at the same time as endurance with President Vladimir V. Putin is working skinny, Berlin is struggling to determine a great way to reply. Some have advised canceling the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which is almost full. Up to now, nonetheless, the German authorities, along with the USA and its European allies, has not taken any motion except for elevating the prospect of further sanctions on Russia.
It’s the newest episode within the German-Russian relationship, which is shut however difficult — and more and more contradictory.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has been unusually clear in her sharp condemnation of Moscow’s more and more brazen actions and lack of cooperation. The poisoning of Mr. Navalny got here lower than a yr after a former Chechen insurgent chief was assassinated in broad daylight in a Berlin park, a killing that German federal prosecutors imagine was orchestrated by the Russian state.
Ms. Merkel, who usually speaks with Mr. Putin by cellphone a minimum of as soon as every week, has not spoken to him since Mr. Navalny’s poisoning, a senior German safety official mentioned.
President Emmanuel Macron of France raised the problem of Mr. Navalny’s poisoning in a cellphone name with Mr. Putin on Monday, affirming the French laboratory outcomes and expressing “severe concern” over Mr. Navalny’s poisoning. He requested that “all gentle be shed, directly, on the circumstances and obligations of this tried assassination,” in keeping with a readout of the decision offered by the French authorities. The readout didn’t embrace Mr. Putin’s response.
Ms. Merkel has been one of many harder leaders in Europe in relation to Russia, demanding a robust line on sustaining financial sanctions in opposition to Moscow after the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, even within the face of pushback at house and in different capitals.
However she has additionally labored laborious to maintain the diplomatic strains to Moscow open. The 2 nations have deep financial hyperlinks, not least in the energy market, and a large faction in German politics believes that Russia needs to be an necessary companion.
Ms. Merkel seems to be treading rigorously as soon as once more — a minimum of for now.
German officers didn’t elevate Mr. Navalny’s poisoning final week, when Dmitri Kozak, a detailed confidant of Mr. Putin, was allowed to land in Berlin for talks associated to the warfare in Ukraine, regardless of a journey ban.
German officers have refused to rule out a re-evaluation of the Nord Stream 2 project, which might instantly join Russia and Germany. Ms Merkel has lengthy defended the undertaking, and specialists say it’s unlikely that the undertaking might be scrapped as a part of the response to the poisoning.
The German response up to now contrasts sharply with Britain’s reaction in 2018, after the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal, a former Russian spy, within the English metropolis of Salisbury. As soon as the British authorities introduced that Russian operatives had used a Novichok class poison in that case, it gave the Kremlin 24 hours to reply, after which it imposed sanctions and rallied allies to expel dozens of Russian diplomats.
However German officers insist that the poisoning of Mr. Navalny just isn’t a bilateral concern between Germany and Russia. In contrast to Mr. Skripal, Mr. Navalny was on Russian soil when he fell violently ailing, and solely later was he transported to a Berlin hospital.
German officers are contemplating quite a lot of doable sanctions, together with particular person journey bans and asset freezes, and hoping for a response backed by all European Union member states. “We wish this to be a European sanctions regime to indicate that that is about our values when a number one opposition politician is poisoned,” mentioned one senior German safety official concerned in discussions of a doable response. “It’s not a bilateral matter.”
The official mentioned that whereas it was necessary to ship a message that Russia’s conduct was out of line, it shouldn’t come on the expense of continued negotiations on points just like the wars in Ukraine and Syria, the place Russia is a key participant.
“It is a horrible factor, we’ve got to sanction it, nevertheless it is not going to result in a completely new Russia coverage,” the official mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity to speak candidly about inner deliberations. “The laborious actuality is: We’d like Russia on Ukraine, Libya, Syria. We don’t need every thing to break down.”
Mr. Navalny’s restoration might additionally affect the eventual response. Although he was introduced out of a medically induced coma final week, his medical doctors haven’t but dominated out long-term problems from the poisoning.
Traces of the poison have been present in samples taken from Mr. Navalny on the hospital in Berlin but in addition, crucially, on a water bottle that had traveled with him from Russia, German officers mentioned. German officers have rejected Moscow’s demand for “proof” that Mr. Navalny was poisoned inside Russia, noting that the Russian authorities had taken their very own samples and confiscated dozens of objects earlier than he was flown to Germany. “They’ve their proof,” one official mentioned.
Katrin Bennhold reported from Berlin, and Michael Schwirtz from London. Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting from Paris.
