Supporters closest to The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny say Moscow authorities are reluctant to investigate his alleged poisoning because the Kremlin is behind it, even though the authorities deny it.
Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for Navalny’s Anti-corruption Foundation and a prominent opposition activist, said in an interview that all the evidence so far points to the Kremlin.
“It’s absolutely obvious to me that I’m not afraid to speak the truth out loud,” Sobol said. “The Kremlin is behind the poisoning.” No one else can do it. And you can see it in the way it was poisoned. Nerve paralysis poison is not something anyone can buy in a pharmacy, it’s something used on the battlefield. That’s why they’re not going to investigate it.”
Mr. Navalny’s colleagues made a request to Russia’s investigative committee for a criminal investigation that could lead to allegations of an assassination attempt on a public figure, but they did not respond.
“They know any investigation will point to the Kremlin,” He said. They did not launch a criminal investigation because they had to answer the findings of the criminal case at some point, if at all.”
Russia’s attorney-general’s office said on Thursday that an investigation launched last week had found no evidence of “deliberate criminal activity” against Mr Navalny.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week he saw no reason for a criminal investigation until the cause of Navalny’s illness was fully determined.
Navalny is a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a corruption investigator. He was flying from Siberia to Moscow when he fell ill, causing the flight to make an emergency landing in Omsk, Siberia.
Navalny’s personal doctor and assistant said she drank black tea at the airport cafe, which she believes was poisoned.
Over the weekend, Navalny was transferred to a Hospital in Charlotte, Germany, for a “full medical examination”. Doctors there found traces in his body of a neuroparalytic substance called cholinesterase inhibitor.
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