MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2020) French upper chamber lawmaker Christian Cambon has voiced suspicion that those interested in undermining Russian President Vladimir Putin were involved in the incident with Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny.
"I assume it could have been groups aiming to destabilize president Putin's standing. This point of view should not be discarded. But it is not a very good incident. it opens new possibilities for Russia's enemies," Cambon, who is the chairman of the upper chamber foreign affairs, defense and armed forces committee, said in an interview with the Russian Kommersant newspaper.
The lawmaker also expressed his reluctance to accuse the Russian president, saying there was no proof.
"The Russian authorities have to do everything to find out the truth and punish those responsible in accordance with the law, no matter who ordered this," Cambon added.
On August 20, Navalny fell ill during a domestic Russian flight. He was initially treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane made an emergency landing. Two days later, once the doctors established he was fit for cross-border aerial transportation, the man was flown to the Berlin-based Charite hospital for further treatment. Later, the German government said that doctors found traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group in his system. Moscow responded by pointing out the lack of evidence in Berlin's claims and noting that Russian doctors had found no toxic substances in Navalny.
The opposition activist was discharged from the hospital on September 23 and is expected to make a full recovery.
