The German Government has said tests performed on samples taken from prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny showed the presence of the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
This was disclosed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert in a statement on Wednesday.
Steffen Seibert said testing by a special German military laboratory had shown proof of a “chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group”.
Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was not informed of German findings and has no such data.
Novichok – a military grade nerve agent, according to report- was used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain.
Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on August 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing.
He was later transferred to Berlin’s Charite hospital, where doctors last week said there were indications he had been poisoned.
Steffen Seibert said the German government will inform its partners in the European Union and NATO about the test results.
He added that said it will consult with its partners in light of the Russian response “on an appropriate joint response”.
