Thu 01 October 2020:
“Only three people can give orders to put into action ‘active measures’ and use novichok.
The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he believes Vladimir Putin ordered intelligence agencies to poison him, possibly to avoid a “Belarusian scenario” of civil unrest.
Navalny was flown from Russia to Berlin in August after falling ill on a domestic flight. He received treatment in the Charite hospital for what Germany said was poisoning by a potentially deadly nerve agent, Novichok, before being discharged in September.
“I assert that Putin was behind the crime, and I have no other explanation for what happened”, Navalny said in his first interview since the poisoning. “Only three people can give orders to put into action ‘active measures’ and use novichok.
Those who know Russian states of affairs also know: FSB director Alexander Bortnikov, foreign intelligence service head Sergey Naryshkin and the director of GRU cannot make such a decision without Putin’s orders.”
Navalny was accompanied on his visit to the magazine’s office by security guards, who insisted they should choose which bottle of water from the fridge he should drink. His allies have said traces of Novichok had been found on a bottle of water he drank in his hotel room before taking the flight.
The Kremlin later accused Navalny of colluding with specialists at the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), saying it believed he received instructions from people it described as “instructors”.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the allegation by Navalny was unacceptable, groundless and insulting but he was free to return to Russia.
