If the health of Russian opposition blogger Alexey Navalny worsens during his treatment in Germany, Russia will not be able to rule out that it was a German-staged provocation, Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of the Russian parliament's lower house, said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2020) If the health of Russian opposition blogger Alexey Navalny worsens during his treatment in Germany, Russia will not be able to rule out that it was a German-staged provocation, Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of the Russian parliament's lower house, said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the German government said that doctors found traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group in Navalny's system. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow never received an official notification on the findings from Berlin. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the requests of the Russian prosecutors and doctors for more information on the matter were left without a response by German counterparts.
"We have not had any information about Navalny's condition since he crossed the Russian border, and this raises questions. If something happens to him now and his condition deteriorates, we will not be able to rule out that it was a provocation orchestrated in the territory of Germany," Volodin said, as quoted in a press release by State Duma, Russia's lower house.
The lawmaker said Russia should seek access to all materials related to Navalny as his life and health have been jeopardized.
"Instead, [Russia encounters] aggressive political statements," Volodin continued.
"It is clear that Germany is a hostage of NATO and has to play an imposed role. However, the goal of sane political forces is to sort out this situation and prevent Germany from being drawn into an anti-Russian campaign," the lawmaker said.
According to Volodin, the Russian-German relations need to build on "mutual respect, transparency and lack of double standards" in order to develop.
The lawmaker called on the counterparts from the German parliament to discuss the Navalny case on the inter-parliamentary level, given the existing working relationship between the two legislatures.
