Berlin Deliberately Delays Investigation in Navalny Case: Russian Spokeswoman
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Berlin, which calls on Moscow to take urgent steps on investigating the incident with Russian blogger Alexei Navalny, is deliberately delaying this process by not responding to Russia’s request, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Sunday.
According to the diplomat, Berlin’s justice department received a request from Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office, which was sent on August 27, only on Friday. "Where is this urgency on which you are insisting? It is the German side that lacks it very much," she stressed.
"By not sending the response Berlin is stonewalling the investigation process, which it has been demanding. Is this done on purpose?" Zakharova said, TASS reported.
"If the German government’s statements are sincere, it should be interested itself in preparing a response to the request by the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office in the shortest term possible," Zakharova said. "Now there is no confidence that Germany is not playing a double game."
On September 2, the German government claimed that having examined Navalny’s test samples the Bundeswehr’s toxicologists came to a conclusion that the blogger had been affected by a Novichok-class toxic agent. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany. He pointed out that no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny’s body prior to his evacuation to Berlin. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas noted that unless Russia took steps on investigating the incident in the coming days Germany and its partners would react.
Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20 after collapsing on the Tomsk-Moscow flight. He fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator in the intensive care unit. On August 22, he was airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital.