BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2020) The European Parliament's debate on the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny looked surreal with lawmakers blaming Moscow without a piece of evidence presented, Thierry Mariani, a lawmaker from France's National Rally party who attended the event, told Sputnik.
After the debate on Thursday, the EU legislature adopted a resolution, demanding that the bloc work out a list of "ambitious restrictive measures" against Russia over the alleged assassination attempt on Navalny and strengthen the existing sanctions. It also reiterated its call on the EU to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
"I was - I believe - the only one in the debate to take a reasonable position. It was astonishing to see the surreal outbidding that all left and far left parties were making in the European parliament to condemn Russia, without a hint of evidence of anything. There has not yet been an investigation," Mariani said.
According to the lawmaker, he feels like "we are back in the 1950s, and "the European Parliament is in the midst of a bout of McCarthyism."
"These same excited parliamentarians, on the other hand, are extremely moderate when it comes to Turkey. They are inconsistent. These MEPs feel so helpless that they escalate the debate, just to feel like they are useful for something," he argued.
The situation around Navalny, meanwhile, is far from clear, Mariani believes.
"I'm also amazed at certain things, like seeing that the plane that brought Navalny from Omsk to Berlin was chartered by the 'Peace for Cinema' foundation which has already shined by going to fetch a pussy riot [activist Pyotr Verzilov from Russia to Charite after his alleged poisoning in 2018]. This whole story is incoherent," he said.
Mariani stated that Berlin "must finally send its medical data to Moscow to allow the investigation to proceed," as "we should never condemn before an investigation is carried out."
Navalny fell ill during a domestic Russian flight on August 20. He was initially treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane had to urgently land. Two days later, once the doctors established he was fit for cross-border aerial transportation, the opposition figure was flown to the Charite hospital in Berlin for further treatment.
Later, the German government said doctors had found traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group in his system. Moscow demands evidence from Berlin, saying that Russian doctors found no toxic substances in Navalny's system.
