© Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty ImagesAlexei Navalny
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
may have been poisoned by a tiny amount of toxin sprinkled in his underwear or socks, according to a retired scientist.
Vladimir Uglev, who claims to have developed the nerve agent Novichok, floated the alternative theory in an interview with Echo of Moscow radio and
reported by the Daily Mail on Wednesday.
"They put this substance on his underwear, his underpants, socks, or his undershirt, and that was it," Uglev said.
Supporters of Navalny, 44, believe he sipped spiked tea at an airport before falling ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, blaming the Kremlin for the attack.
But Uglev suggested he may have been poisoned before he got to the airport.
"In the morning Alexei woke up, showered, got dressed and went to the airport," he said. "And
since the substance acts slower via the skin than say through the digestive system, time passed [before it had an impact]."
Uglev said just a tiny amount of toxin would have been enough to sicken the dissident, one of President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics.
"Speaking about
the quantity of the poison that was needed, it's 1 to 2 milligrams, or approximately a 1/30 of a water drop," the nerve agent expert said. "This is enough to poison a healthy man to death."
But
Uglev said it wouldn't be possible that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok specifically — the substance used to poison turncoat Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018 — because more people would've been sickened.
The scientist has claimed to have synthesized the deadly liquid in 1975.
Doctors at the Charité hospital in Germany said Navalny was poisoned on Aug. 20 but they have not been able to determine the specific substance.Navalny, who is in a medically induced coma, was transferred to Germany after first being taken to a hospital in Omsk in Siberia.Uglev said any evidence of the alleged poison used on him may be long gone."If it was applied on his underwear and therefore the substance was going through his skin ... he was definitely washed, and the clothes he was wearing, we will never see them again," he said. "No one will ever say where these clothes are, most likely they were burned long ago."
Russia, which has denied involvement in Navalny's and the Skripals' poisonings, has
launched a preliminary investigation into Navalny's case.
Comment: Bryan MacDonald for RT
writes:
Hospital tests on Russian anti-corruption campaigner and Moscow protest leader Alexey Navalny show that he was "beyond doubt" poisoned with a 'Novichok' class chemical agent, according to the German government.
Berlin added that it will provide the new information to European Union partners and other international organizations. However, the Russian government says it has not been informed. The 'Novichok'-like substance is from the same class as that allegedly used to poison Russian-born British intelligence agent Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, in Salisbury in 2018.
Though the spokesman for the German government did not blame the Russian state for Navalny's poisoning, he called on Moscow to explain its position on the case. "The German government condemns this attack in the most resolute way," Steffen Seibert added.
"At the initiative of the Charité hospital [in Berlin] the Bundeswehr's [German military] special laboratory has carried out toxicological analysis of Alexei Navalny's test samples," Seibert explained. "The analysis provided indisputable proof of the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent." He added that Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday held a conference with ministers and agreed a number of steps in the light of the latest data.
"The federal government will provide information on testing results to the EU and NATO through the Foreign Ministry's channels," he continued. Seibert added that "an appropriate joint reaction will be discussed."
Fingers will no doubt now be pointed at Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that "the Russian leadership clearly does not" benefit from Navalny's illness, and slammed western governments for their "suspicious haste" in blaming Russia. Of these governments, Germany and the US have led the charge, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling for a criminal investigation into the alleged attack, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel making a similar demand, "in light of the prominent role played by Mr. Navalny in the political opposition in Russia."
The US has already threatened to punish Russia with sanctions, and Siebert said on Wednesday that Germany would discuss "an appropriate joint response" with European Union leaders and Washington.
[...]
The doctors added that there was no threat to his life but there was the possibility of long-term effects on his nervous system.
Apparently Germany was bold enough to request comment from Russia about the incident but it still has yet to share this "indisputable proof" with them:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry "No, we didn't receive this information,"
The Foreign Ministry also said it was still waiting for Germany to reply to an official inquest from the office of Russia's Prosecutor General regarding Navalny's condition.
As with the Skripal case, and many others, it's highly unlikely Russia has need nor would do something like this, whereas other more nefarious players have much more to gain, and have a history committing such crimes; only if the public falls for it, of course:
Comment: Bryan MacDonald for RT writes: Apparently Germany was bold enough to request comment from Russia about the incident but it still has yet to share this "indisputable proof" with them: As with the Skripal case, and many others, it's highly unlikely Russia has need nor would do something like this, whereas other more nefarious players have much more to gain, and have a history committing such crimes; only if the public falls for it, of course: