German Foreign Minister Says Pressure on Russia in Navalny Case May Increase

BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2020) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday that as new information on the situation with prominent Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny emerges pressure on Russia for clarification will be mounting.

"We have to wait [and see] what the further medical tests [by the Charite hospital] will show. If we are talking about a substance injected into Navalny, a more likely use of the substance, use in other cases as well as regarding where it is manufactured and stored then the pressure on Russia to contribute to the clarification of the situation will grow," Maas said at a press conference after an informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Berlin.

According to Maas, in case of zero contribution, it will be necessary to once again discuss a response.

On Thursday of last week, Navalny suffered an acute health situation and went into a coma during a domestic Russian flight.

Following an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, he was hospitalized with suspicions that he had been poisoned as one of the possible reasons behind his condition. Russian doctors subsequently found no traces of poison in his samples and opined that the deterioration was caused by an abrupt drop of glucose in Navalny's blood due to a metabolic disbalance.

On Saturday, Navalny was flown to Berlin for further treatment at Charite clinic. According to a statement from Aleksandr Murakhovsky, the lead doctor of the Omsk hospital, the German doctors said in a letter that Navalny's condition remained steadily grave. According to Charite, Navalny was intoxicated by a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors.