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Despite this, a member of Navalny’s staff advised CNN that the water bottle was not essentially the merchandise used to poison the Kremlin critic, suggesting the substance might have been positioned on a unique object.
“As we understand, the bottle was not the source of this poisonous substance but more likely as he drank from it … his mouth … left traces of [the poison] on the bottle,” Georgy Alburov, who works at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, stated.
“We are guided by what the experts have said, which is that there was a small amount [of the substance], most likely just a trace of it [on the bottle],” he added.
The German authorities has stated Navalny was poisoned with a chemical agent from the Novichok group, a conclusion supported by two different labs in France and Sweden.
Navalny fell unwell on August 20, on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. Alburov stated he had remained within the Siberian metropolis with a number of colleagues for an additional day to end an investigative report on a neighborhood official.
He stated information of Navalny’s situation reached the group whereas they had been having breakfast within the lodge, and that he and his colleagues then managed to get entry to the Kremlin critic’s room to accumulate his private gadgets before it was cleaned.
“Just knowing the political history of Russia and knowing the state of Alexey’s health, it could not have been anything else but poisoning,” Alburov stated.
“So our first thought was that we must preserve the maximum of what could have something to do with the poisoning, specifically items from his room,” he added.
“We put everything into plastic bags and sealed them, so no one would get hurt in case there was indeed some poison on them and so that nothing else could get inside.”
Alburov advised CNN that native police in Tomsk displayed “special interest” within the water bottles and tried to confiscate them.
“When the police questioned us, they were especially interested in the water bottles, weirdly, even though we took a lot of other items,” he stated.
When requested to remark, Tomsk police didn’t remark on the matter and referred CNN to the principle directorate of the Russian Interior Ministry, which has not but responded to CNN’s question.
The Kremlin has beforehand stated it “sees no reason” to blame the Russian state for the assault or to launch a prison probe into the matter.
The German international ministry refused to straight remark on the matter when contacted by CNN Thursday.
Alburov added that Navalny’s staff requested entry to lodge CCTV footage however realized that it had been confiscated by the police.
The bottles had been then taken to Germany in the identical medevac aircraft which was used to evacuate Navalny from Omsk, the place his aircraft made an pressing touchdown, to Berlin’s Charite Hospital on August 22, the place he stays.
“Two weeks later, it was on the bottle from Tomsk that the German laboratory found traces of Novichok,” Navalny’s staff stated on Instagram Thursday. “And then two more laboratories that took tests from Alexey confirmed that Navalny was poisoned by it [Novichok].
“Now we perceive: this was completed before he left his room to go to the airport,” the aides said Thursday.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is assisting German authorities in the case, said Thursday it was also running tests on samples collected from Navalny.
Novichok agents are both lethal and highly unusual, so much so that that very few scientists outside of Russia have any real experience in dealing with them, raising questions about Moscow’s role in the poisoning.
Novichok was also used in a March 2018 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury.
Navalny plans return to Russia
On Tuesday Russia said it had “eradicated” all warfare agents, including Novichok, according to state news agency TASS which cited the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin.
“[The warfare agents] had been eradicated in accordance with [OPCW] procedures and guidelines which was correctly documented. Any hypothesis Russia nonetheless produces or retains in inventory the outdated reserves of chemical warfare brokers are disinformation, after all,” Naryshkin said, according to TASS.
Naryshkin added that no poisonous substances “had been detected in Navalny’s physique” when the opposition leader left Russia for Germany. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the incident.
The anti-corruption activist’s condition is slowly improving in Berlin, where doctors have weaned him off mechanical ventilation.
Navalny posted a photograph of himself sitting up in a hospital bed and surrounded by his family on September 15.
In his first direct message after his hospitalization, Navalny said he was now breathing on his own without medical support.
“Hi, that is Navalny,” the politician wrote in the caption.
“I miss you. I nonetheless can hardly do something, however yesterday I used to be in a position to breathe on my very own for the entire day. Just myself. I didn’t use any exterior assist, not even the best valve in my throat.”
On Monday, the hospital stated Navalny was in a position to go away his mattress for brief durations of time.
Navalny intends to return to Russia following his restoration, his spokesperson advised CNN on Monday.
An earlier model of this story incorrectly described the video assertion from Alexey Navalny’s aides. They didn’t say he was made unwell by consuming from the water bottle however stated traces of Novichok had been found on it.
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