European Lawmaker Says Berlin Should Share Navalny Medical Data With Russia

European Lawmaker Says Berlin Should Share Navalny Medical Data With Russia

The German government should share medical data on Russian opposition blogger Alexey Navalny's alleged poisoning with Moscow so the latter can launch a proper investigation, especially after an EU resolution calling for sanctions over the incident, Tom Vandendriessche, a Belgian member of the European Parliament, told Sputnik

BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2020) The German government should share medical data on Russian opposition blogger Alexey Navalny's alleged poisoning with Moscow so the latter can launch a proper investigation, especially after an EU resolution calling for sanctions over the incident, Tom Vandendriessche, a Belgian member of the European Parliament, told Sputnik.

"With regard to the second resolution concerning Russia, that which covers the Navalny poisoning, Germany must still send the medical data which were collected on A. Navalny in Berlin, to Russia, as already requested twice by Moscow. The resolution confirms it. The Russian government needs these data for the inquiry it should launch immediately to clarify what happened to A. Navalny during his trip to Siberia," Vandendriessche remarked.

The Nord Stream 2 project, a 745-mile-long twin pipeline that will carry up to 55 billion cubic meters (1.942 trillion cubic feet) of gas per year from Russia to Germany, has been one of the proposed targets for future EU sanctions against Russia. The Belgian member of European Parliament said that he saw little reason for threatening the pipeline's future over the current incident.

"As for the coupling of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to the Navalny case, it is strange, coming from Germany, which has financed this large infrastructure project with Russia. I don't believe the project will be stopped. It is anyway in its final construction phase. This is just a political declaration without real foundation," Vandendriessche remarked.

Gilles Lebreton, a French member of the European Parliament, agreed with his Belgian counterpart that it is unlikely that the European Parliament's resolution will lead to further measures against Russia or the Nord Stream 2 project.

"This resolution on the Navalny case is a pure exercise of style: the [European] Commission wants to stigmatize President Putin but that will not lead to anything concrete. Now is the time for rapprochement with Moscow," Lebreton remarked.

Navalny fell ill in mid-August while on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow. Russian doctors immediately provided medical assistance, and the opposition figure was later transferred to Germany for treatment. Upon his arrival in Berlin, the German government issued a statement saying that traces of a nerve agent of the Novichok group had been detected in Navalny's system.

The Russian government has expressed its willingness to cooperate with its counterparts in Germany to uncover the circumstances surrounding Navalny's illness. During a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow will not accept any groundless and unsubstantiated accusations in relation to the Navalny case.