The German government has said the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny requires police protection because of a “certain likelihood” he was poisoned, a spokesman has said.“Because one can assume with a certain likelihood that we are dealing with a poison attack, protection is essential,” Steffen Seibert, the spokesman for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, told a press conference on Monday morning. Security has been increased at the Charité hospital complex in Berlin where Navalny is being treated for a suspected poisoning after falling ill during a flight in Russia last week.“The suspicion is not that Mr Navalny poisoned himself but that someone poisoned Mr Navalny, and there are unfortunately one or two examples of such poisonings in recent Russian history,” Seibert said. The hospital said Navalny was undergoing extensive testing for poisoning and cautioned it would take some time for the results to be known. His family and supporters have not revealed any results from the hospital tests, although an aide told the Guardian on Sunday Navalny was in stable condition and remained unconscious. His evacuation to Germany on Saturday came after a direct plea from Navalny’s wife to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to allow his transfer abroad, as well as public concerns expressed by the leaders of Germany, France and Finland. The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, was cautious in his remarks about the case on Monday.“I belong to those who base their assessments on facts,” Maas said on a visit to Kyiv.
All data is taken from the source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Article Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/24/alexei-navalny-was-probably-poisoned-says-germany#img-1
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