 |
| Alexei Navalny is in a medically induced coma in a Berlin hospital where he was airlifted on Saturday after collapsing during a flight. The German clinic said its initial medical examination pointed to poisoning, though Russian doctors who had treated Navalny in a Siberian hospital have contradicted that diagnosis. |
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped opposition politician Alexei Navalnyโs illness would not damage Russiaโs ties with the West and that it was keen to find out why he fell ill despite declining to open an investigation into the incident.
Navalny is in a medically induced coma in a Berlin hospital where he was airlifted on Saturday after collapsing during a flight. The German clinic said its initial medical examination pointed to poisoning, though Russian doctors who had treated Navalny in a Siberian hospital have contradicted that diagnosis.
Germany, the United States and other countries have called on Russia to investigate the circumstances that led to Navalnyโs illness but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the diagnosis so far was inconclusive.
Replying to a question on the possible worsening of relations between Moscow and the West, Peskov said: โOf course we would not like this (to happen), thatโs the first thing.
โSecondly, there is no reason for that.โ
President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte later on Wednesday in which they discussed Navalnyโs health.
โThe Russian side stressed the inadmissibility of hasty and unfounded accusations in this regard,โ the Kremlin said in a statement about the call. It said Moscow wanted the circumstances surrounding Navalnyโs condition to come to light.
Peskovโs comments and Putinโs phone call come a day after the speaker of Russiaโs lower house of parliament said a committee would launch an inquiry to determine whether foreign forces had played a hand in Navalnyโs illness in order to fuel tensions in Russia.
Asked about the parliamentary speakerโs theory about foreign forces, Peskov said if poisoning was confirmed and the substance definitively identified, โthen there would be reason to consider whom it benefitsโ.
โWe are no less interested than anyone else to know what led to the coma,โ he added.
Earlier, a senior ally of Navalny said he believed only Putin could have authorised the suspected poisoning of the outspoken Kremlin critic. Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalnyโs Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), did not provide any evidence for the claim.
โHe (Putin) hates what the FBK does too much, exposing him and his entourage,โ Zhdanov said.
The Kremlin has dismissed as โhot airโ and untrue any suggestion Putin was somehow involved in Navalny falling ill.
Cholinesterase inhibitors, named by German doctors as a possible cause of Navalnyโs illness, are chemical compounds used in certain medicines. Nerve gases and โNovichokโ โ the substance used in 2018 to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in England โ are also cholinesterase inhibitors.
Navalny has been a thorn in the Kremlinโs side for more than a decade, exposing what he says is high-level graft.
However, he has said he believes his death would not help Putin. Reuters reported he had told supporters just before his illness that his death would โturn him into a heroโ.
The pressure on Russia following Navalnyโs illness has hit Russian markets, with the rouble tumbling on Wednesday to four-year lows against the euro.
REUTERS
