MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Russia did not receive a response to its inquiries from Sweden regarding the case of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, adding that he plans to discuss the matter with his Swedish counterpart, Anna Linde.
Earlier in January, Navalny returned to Russia after receiving treatment in Germany following a suspected poisoning in Siberia. Berlin claims that German doctors found evidence of poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group in Navalny's body, which was refuted by Moscow. Germany has also said that French and Swedish laboratories carried out independent research and confirmed that Navalny was poisoned by a nerve agent from the Novichok family of toxins.
"There is also no answer to our inquiry as to on what grounds and how the Swedish military laboratory concluded that Mr. Navalny was poisoned by some new substance from the so-called Novichok group. This does not fit at all into the transparency rule on this and any other issue that our German and other colleagues are advocating, but they themselves do not want to be transparent in the conclusions they use to advance their anti-Russian position," Lavrov said ahead of a meeting with Linde in Moscow.
The top Russian diplomat added that Moscow wants to discuss all issues with Stockholm honestly, openly and without any prejudices as Russia is interested in having good neighborly relations with Sweden.
"There are some good examples of positive development in our bilateral [Russian-Swedish] relations, but on the whole, of course, their condition leaves much to be desired. We hear statements about the so-called Russian military threat and other anti-Russian rhetoric, but, unfortunately, all our proposals to establish a dialogue on any issues of concern remain unanswered," Lavrov added.
Upon his arrival in Moscow, Navalny was detained for probation violations. A hearing on whether to replace the opposition figure's suspended sentence with a real prison term is scheduled for Wednesday. On January 23 and 31, many Russian cities were hit by protests in support of Navalny. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called the organizers of the unauthorized protests provocateurs.
