'It is important that the US president be against': Navalny called on Trump to condemn his poisoning

The Russian oppositionist said that Novichok was used against him not only to kill, but also to intimidate others, writes "Voice of America".

Photo: Shutterstock

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called on US President Donald Trump to join other world leaders in denouncing banned chemical weapons that he believes were used against him at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny announced this in an interview with the 60 Minutes program, which will be shown on Sunday, October 18. The TV company published excerpts from the conversation on Wednesday 14 October.

The CBS journalist met with Navalny and his wife Yulia in Berlin, where he is recovering from exposure to a deadly substance. German military and independent laboratories in Sweden and France confirmed that the substance was a powerful nerve agent Novichok.

When asked if he thought the attack was carried out at Putin's direction, Navalny replied: “I don't think so. I'm sure he is responsible for this. "

The attack drew condemnation from French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders.

Navalny "noted" that President Trump would not have done this.

"I think it is extremely important that everyone, and perhaps above all the President of the United States, be firmly against the use of chemical weapons in the XNUMXst century."

On the subject: 'I just knew I was dying': Navalny gave his first interview after poisoning

Navalny believes that Novichok was used against him not only to kill him, but also to intimidate others.

“This is a prohibited substance. I think Putin used this chemical to kill me and intimidate others. And it's really scary, ”he told CBS. - When people just fall dead (no weapons, no shots - you just fall without any marks on your body), it's something terrible. And Putin likes it. "

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously called the accusations unfounded and unacceptable.

But Navalny believes there is a reason for this denial.

“They deny everything. Otherwise it means they still have that "Novichok" guy. By maintaining it, they are not just violating [the ban on chemical weapons]. They keep improving it."

Navalny was airlifted to Berlin after spending two days in a Russian hospital claiming he had not been poisoned.

“They thought that in 48 hours this poison could not be traced,” Navalny said.

EU imposed sanctions against Russia over Navalny's poisoning

The European Union has imposed sanctions against six individuals and the Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology in connection with the poisoning of Navalny. The document notes that sanctions were imposed for violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, writes RBC... The decision was published on the website of the European Union Journal.

The EU sanctions list includes:

• FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov;
• First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko;
• Andrei Yarin, head of the Russian presidential administration's internal policy department;
• Sergei Menyailo, presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District;
• Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov;
• Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko;
• State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology.

The persons on the list are prohibited from entering the EU countries, transit through these countries, their assets and funds in the EU are frozen, EU citizens are not entitled to provide them with any economic resources.

Later, the British Foreign Office announced sanctions against the Russians. London did not draw up its own list, but extended the sanctions adopted in Brussels to the territory of the kingdom.

The EU justified the sanctions against Kiriyenko by the fact that "the poisoning of Alexei Navalny was impossible without the consent of the Russian presidential administration." The justification for Yarin's sanctions says that he participates in the administration's working group, which counteracts "the influence of Alexei Navalny in Russian society, including through operations aimed at discrediting him."

Bortnikov's justification says that the poisoning was possible only with the participation of the FSB. Defense Ministry officials were included in the list because it was the military department that was responsible for the safe storage and destruction of chemical weapons stocks. The use of "Novichok" is a "negligence" of the Ministry of Defense, the EU considered. Sergei Menyailo, as a representative of the administration in the region, “is responsible for encouraging and supporting the persons who carried out or were involved in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with the nerve agent Novichok.

The institute is added for negligence to a stockpile of chemical weapons that was supposed to be destroyed.

As an exception, EU members may allow entry into their territory of sanctioned persons if such a country is the host of an international intergovernmental organization visited by the sanctioned person, or holds an international conference under the auspices of the UN.

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said later that he saw no logic in sanctions against Russia over Navalny. According to him, the new restrictions the European Union harmed relations with Moscow.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported on October 8 that when developing this package of sanctions, Germany managed to avoid linking the situation with Navalny to the fate of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Then the publication reported that the sanctions list, which France and Germany were going to offer their partners in the European Union, should include nine Russians: representatives of the presidential administration, special services, as well as the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT), in which, as it is believed the "Novice" was invented.

Alexei Navalny himself, in an interview with Spiegel magazine, did not approve of sanctions against Russia and did not support the idea of ​​banning the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.

“This is a matter for Germany. Decide for yourself! Sanctions against Russia are generally useless. We need punishments for specific criminals, and I can tell you that 95% of Russian citizens would welcome them. Then the beneficiaries of the corrupt system will no longer be able to enjoy life in Berlin, ”Navalny replied.

During treatment in the Berlin clinic "Charite", German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to him for a private conversation.

On September 2, Merkel personally announced that traces of a chemical warfare agent of the Novichok family were found in Navalny's body. At that time Poland, Ukraine, the USA, a number of political parties and leaders, including in Germany itself, demanded to impose sanctions, including against the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. Merkel did not publicly exclude then that the gas pipeline could be included in the sanctions list, but noted that this issue will have to be resolved at the level of the European Union and it is difficult to predict its reaction today. In the end, Paris and Berlin took over the development of the draft sanctions.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• On the morning of August 20, during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), Alexei Navalny, felt sick on the plane. The liner made an emergency landing in Omsk, where Navalny was hospitalized in the emergency hospital No. 1, in the toxic intensive care unit. There the politician fell into a coma.
• Ex-FSB officer and opposition politician Gennady Gudkov toldwhy Navalny's associates and other politicians call the version of the involvement of the special services a priority, as well as how and with what the oppositionist could have been poisoned.
• August 21, the wife of Alexei Navalny Julia signed permission to transport her husband for treatment in Germany. On the morning of August 22, Navalny taken by plane to Berlin... He was still in a coma.
• The clinic where Navalny was taken confirmed the assumptions about his poisoning... Clinical studies have indicated a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors.
• Transportation of an opposition politician to Germany on a special medical plane paid for by Russian businessman Boris Ziminwho now lives in the United States.
• In the United States Department of Commerce сообщилиthat Washington has good reason to believe that the research institutes (SRIs) of the Russian Defense Ministry are involved in the development of chemical and biological weapons.
• September 4th German laboratory found traces of Novichok in Navalny's skin, blood and urine samples.
• On September 7, the Charite clinic, where Alexei Navalny was located, released a new message: politics brought out of an artificial coma and began to gradually disconnect from the ventilator.
• On September 10, it became known that Navalny completely recovered, memory and speech returned to him.
• September 15 politician for the first time since poisoning posted a photo on Instagram. The New York Times writes that he intends to return to Russia.
• On September 23rd, the clinic announced that Navalny was discharged... In total, he spent 32 days in a German hospital.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Navalny was discharged from a Berlin clinic: he spoke about his rehabilitation

A bottle with traces of poison: a new version of Navalny's poisoning has appeared

Alexei Navalny nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Berlin Clinic Returns 'Putin's Chef' A Million Intended For Navalny's Treatment

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