MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2020) German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a secret visit to Alexey Navalny while the Russian opposition blogger was undergoing treatment at Berlin's Charite hospital, the German magazine Der Spiegel stated, citing its own sources.
According to the magazine, the visit took place in complete secrecy as the blogger was receiving medical care in the German capital. The exact date of Merkel's visit was not published.
Navalny was transported to Germany after he fell ill in late August while on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow. The German government later said that tests conducted on the blogger showed traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group in his system.
Russian doctors who treated Navalny in the city of Omsk, where the flight he was on made an emergency landing, have said that no traces of a poisonous substance were discovered during tests.
The German government has made a request to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to assist with the investigation into the incident. The Russian government has expressed its desire to cooperate with its German counterparts, and Russian diplomats on Wednesday sent a note to the OPCW's German delegates to share all information.
Navalny was discharged from hospital on September 23 and is expected to make a full recovery.
