Dutch Foreign Minister Says Shocked by Merkel's Remarks on Navalny's Alleged Poisoning

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2020) Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said that he was shocked by the remarks of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said on Wednesday that Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny had been poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok group.

The German government said that a military laboratory had undeniable proof that the 44-year-old Russian government critic had been poisoned with the nerve agent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no toxin traces had been found in Navalny's samples during his treatment in Russia.

"Shocked by the announcement of Chancellor #Merkel @RegSprecher that @Navalny has been poisoned with the chemical weapon Novichok. In contact with Germany on further action. We need an explanation from Russia. Impunity is unacceptable," Blok wrote on his Twitter page on late Wednesday.

Navalny fell gravely ill while on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20. He was placed in a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane made an emergency landing. Two days later, Navalny was transported to the Berlin-based Charite clinic for further treatment.