Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Anton Kolodyazhnyy
ReutersThu, 03 Sep 2020 18:43 UTC
© REUTERS/Christian Mang; Global Look Press/Zamir UsmanovAn ambulance that allegedly transported Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen at Charite Mitte Hospital Complex where he will receive medical treatment in Berlin, Germany August 22, 2020.
The Kremlin on Thursday rejected accusations that Russia had been responsible for the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny and said it saw no grounds for sanctions to be imposed against Moscow over the case.
The Kremlin was speaking a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Navalny had been poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him.
Navalny, 44, is an outspoken opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has specialised in high-impact investigations into official corruption. He was airlifted to Germany last month after collapsing on a domestic Russian flight after drinking a cup of tea that his allies said was poisoned.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow rejected any suggestion that Russia had been behind the attack on Navalny and warned other countries against jumping to hasty conclusions.
"There are no grounds to accuse the Russian state. And we are not inclined to accept any accusations in this respect," Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said there was therefore no reason to discuss sanctions against Moscow.
Merkel has said Germany would consult its NATO allies about how to respond to the poisoning.
She faced growing pressure on Thursday to reconsider the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will take gas from Russia to Germany, after her statement on Navalny, who is being treated in a Berlin hospital.
Nord Stream 2 is set to double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline in carrying gas directly from Russia to Germany. It is more than 90% finished and due to operate from early 2021.
Peskov said the Kremlin regarded talk of taking action against the pipeline as being based on emotions.He said the project was a commercial one which benefited Russia, Germany and Europe.
And he rejected the premise that Russia deserved to be sanctioned over the case.
"We don't understand what the reason for any sanctions could be," said Peskov.
Comment: According to the Omsk doctor who treated Navalny (before he was shipped off to Germany, before multiple agencies tested his blood finding nothing, and before one government-associated lab "identified" novichok in his sample), if Navalny was poisoned with the alleged Soviet novichok, others around him
would have been affected too. He reiterated that no traces of toxic substances were found in his kidneys, liver, lungs.
But NATO and EU leaders are calling on Russia to conduct a full and transparent
investigation into the alleged poisoning. Biden (via whoever writes his tweets) jumped on the idiot train with this:
Yes, hold the Putin regime accountable for whatever we say they did (truth about the matter in question be damned).
That said, once more Russia is backed into a corner and put on the defensive because of western-created narratives brought to you by their intelligence services. Paul Robinson, for example,
argues that it is now in Russia's best interest to conduct such an investigation. Regardless of the Russian government's guilt or innocence, those against Putin (both outside and within Russia) will use any continued denials that Navalny wasn't poisoned, and any refusals to investigate, as evidence of guilt. If Navalny was poisoned, and it was either some rogue element of the Russian system, or some private individual or group, Robinson writes:
Either option must be highly disturbing to the authorities. No state wants private individuals to be going around attacking each other with high grade poisons. Again, therefore, this explanation requires a strong government response.
Regardless of which explanation is correct, Russia's leaders have a serious problem. On the one hand, they face the prospect of being blamed for trying to kill a prominent critic. And on the other hand, if they themselves are not responsible, they find themselves having to deal with unknown people poisoning citizens of their country with military grade nerve agents. Either way, only very firm and visible action to get to the bottom of the case can help the Kremlin dig itself out of the hole it now finds itself in.
Or, more likely, as with the Skripals,
he was never poisoned with novichok in the first place, and the blood samples were contaminated by military/intelligence agencies who got their hands on the samples for "testing". But in this case, again as with the Skripals, it becomes almost impossible to defend yourself against such accusations because the culprits have "catapulted the propaganda" and already determined the narrative.
See also:
Happens all the time, and who benefits? Beriut explosion, fake Douma attacks, etc. Why do these ''events'' always benefit the same crowd and their political ambitions?
A couple of points. Why would the Russians allow Navalny to go to Germany if they were responsible for poisoning him? Even more to the point, if so, why isn't he dead? Also, he could be more problematic to the Russian government as a martyr, than he ever could be with a pulse.
Just where are the Skripals?