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THE SECRETARY GENERAL of Nato has condemned the “appalling assassination attempt” on Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and called on Moscow to answer questions.
Navalny, a Kremlin critic and corruption investigator, fell ill on a flight to Moscow and has been in an induced coma in a Berlin hospital since he was flown to Germany for treatment more than a week ago.
German authorities have said tests showed that he had been poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.
Jens Stoltenberg, speaking after he chaired a meeting of NATO ambassadors, said: “There is proof beyond doubt that Navalny was poisoned using a military-grade nerve agent from the Novichok group.
“The use of such a weapon is horrific.
“Any use of chemical weapons shows a total disrespect for human lives and is an unacceptable breach of international norms and rules. Nato allies agree that Russia now has serious questions it must answer.”
Stoltenberg said Moscow must cooperate with the international chemical weapons organisation in “an impartial, international investigation” and provide information about its Novichok programme.
‘We haven’t had proof’
Asked about the case on yesterday, US President Donald Trump told reporters that “I don’t know exactly what happened”, adding that “we haven’t had any proof yet”.
But later he said he would not be happy if Russia did poison Navalny, “and that seems to be the case”.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Thursday that Navalny was the victim of a “reprehensible” poisoning.
“Russia has used chemical nerve agents in the past”, she added, “and we’re working with our allies and the international community to hold those in Russia accountable wherever the evidence leads and restrict funds for their malign activities”.
Russian authorities have appeared reluctant to investigate what caused Navalny’s condition, saying there had so far been no grounds for a criminal investigation.
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said a preliminary inquiry was ongoing, but added that he saw no signs of a crime in what happened to the most determined critic of president Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s spokesman has brushed off allegations the Kremlin was involved in poisoning Navalny and said Germany had not provided Moscow with any evidence about the politician’s condition.
“We have nothing to hide,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday, asserting that German authorities had stonewalled Russian requests for information.
Lavrov said the failure to provide information about Navalny’s poisoning could indicate a lack of evidence.
“Our Western partners allow themselves to make arrogant demands in such a tone that suggests that they have nothing but pathos to put on the table,” he said.
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As usual with Russia, they are deemed guilty without the need for proof.
@Michael Mc Carthy: Why is Germany’s toxicology findings not proof? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/world/europe/navalny-poison-novichok.html
@ruairi: there are no findings in that article.
@Tony Ember: Why would we doubt Germany’s findings? You should give Angela a call and demand she share the document with you. But I’m sure that’ll not be enough either.
@Michael Mc Carthy: no one deemed anyone guilty. Putin is a suspect and so are others
@Michael Mc Carthy: it’s enough that critics of Putin die horribly, journalists are beaten up or killed. Rivals are poisoned or shot outside Kremlin. Be smart
@Michael Mc Carthy:
You are Correct.
All we do is listen to western media controlled by a few people.
Hang on , my cat did a poo on the doorstep , I’m blaming Russia
@Denis White: it appears you aren’t educated enough to argue Russian interference tactics with logic and reason. The Third Reich would have loved you.
@ruairi: Finding what caused this does not show who did it. That chemical is available to many countries. It may or may not be the Russians but everyone is innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. If another country or organisation did this it would be a great way of blaming it on Russia for their own sinister purposes.
@Michael Mc Carthy:
A strange coincidence that you happen to be a fake bot account only appearing for the Russian articles.
@John Hagin Meade:
Absolutely useless reasoning. Russia has always tried to muddy the waters, putin won’t publicly say navalny, numerous assassinations of anti putin Russians. Novichok is weapon grade chemical, when Russian intelligence agents Just happen to be nearby. Happens inside Russia but they don’t seem bothered if a foreign country tried to assassinate a Russian citizen. I suppose “western agents” swapped dirty samples in sochi for clean ones cause years later a whistle………
Before we all run into judge…..just take one step back and consider. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that other anti Putin elements did this to discredit him? Appreciate you dont buy/obtain nerve agents from your local Boots either. Not arguing for Putin or against him. Just asking…..
@Richard Day: It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility, but it’s much more likely the people who smuggled chemical weapons produced by the Russian militiary onto a private plane and poisoned Putin’s most dangerous opponent were working for the state, just like they were when they murdered Litvenenko and attempted to murder the Skripals. And when the Russian authorities offer by way of explanation for Navalny’s comatose state that he may simply have had ‘a lack of breakfast” and refuse to investigate it at all, there’s not much more to consider.
@Richard Day: why not two steps back and consider that it was Hillary Clinton? Being sarcastic by the way
@ruairi: someone else could have manufacturered it and it wouldn’t be the first time the West betrayed their own proxies. It also could have been a criminal element as he is involved with the semi criminal oligarchy
@ruairi: exactly, critics of Putin tend to die horribly. Men like him fear any critism really pathetic he felt need to do this when his ratings are soaring, really shows up his character
Putin half poisons the chap, brings him to hospital in Moscow then releases him to be examined in a German hospital. All to bring more sanctions on himself and possibly kill off Nord Stream 2. Seems logical.
@Kieran Woods: This “extremely potent” nerve agent doesn’t seem as effective as the fake suicides beloved of the UK intelligence service or lethl car tampering which Russia usually does. Navalny is not the type to use public transport!
@SC: Hello Mister Troll, you not tired of posting the same spill over and over again ? Your tactics are very recognizable. Say hi to the troll factory ⭐️
@Kieran Woods: he wasn’t supposed to survive.
@Drunk in Dublin: Then is wasn’t Putin. He would not have survived if it was.
NATO’s will have to realise soon that Putin doesn’t answer to anyone…
@Shane McGrath: don’t blame him either, invades and annex’s Ukraine, NATO doesn’t do anything.
@Shane McGrath: is that a good or a bad thing?
Remember there’s a bottleen of novichock floating around the UK somewhere it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility the brits had a hand in this a destabilised EU would suit them grand. How’s that for a conspiracy theory?
@Seanboy: your self and Brian Flavin should get together and go into the novel writing business
@Seanboy: sure they flew it all way into Russia and somehow got it into his coffee at a airport. Critics of Putin never last
@Colin Keogh: Didn’t the Russians fly it all the way to Britain, through customs checks and brought it on a site seeing tour of the beautiful cathedrals in the UK smeared it on a doorknob then dumped it.
@Seanboy: which seems a lot more reasonable than what you have put out
@Stephen Coveney: Glad you think so, its the plot for a new book I’m thinking of writing. The fools world, should be a best seller! if a tenth of the fools buy it I’ll be minted.
Russia doesn’t, won’t, and Putin knows the West doesn’t have the balls to stand up to him.
@Ger O’Reilly:
Stand up to him ???
How???
Use military force ???
Navalny is loosing support in Russia and no treat whatsoever to Putin , in fact his popularity is so low it makes him a asset to Putin.
Personally cannot see any reason why Moscow would want him dead.
His a liability to other nations now which won’t name ( close neighbours) so maybe they wanted him out?
Just putting it out there to readers
@Denis White:
His YouTube has literally millions of views each for all of his videos. I’ll let the readers make up their own minds on how popular that might make him.
@Denis White:formatted Post that has no reasoning behind it
Well Trumpy wants more evidence before he’s convinced. At this point I’m almost 100% sure he’s being blackmailed. There’s just no way a person that successful can be so stup*d.
@ianglen: Trump wants proof Navalny was poisoned, but doesn’t need proof to spout conspiracy theories about mail-in-voting fraud, the Saudi murder of Khashoggi, Chinese genocide of minorities or the Russian bounties on American soldiers’ heads (even though it’s evident).
@ianglen: successful?
From Henry II “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest”.
Putin has surrounded himself with scyophants. All of which now view any threat to Putin as a threat to them also. They all know that if Putin falls, they all fall with him. So with or without his knowledge or endorsement they act, as much to protect their own interests as to protect Putin.
Trump in his entire term has never once been personally critical of Putin. From the hacking of the DNC computers through the Skripal poisoning, the bounty on US Soldiers in Afghanistan to this Poisoning.
Cui Bono ?
Israel and their Wasp 5eyes lackeys, usual false flag stuff ?
@Declan Gilsenan:
Faux compte
If he recovery from poisoning and he wont back to Russia and his fear killed by top secret KGB again that Putin order it and I see museum in Berlin about wall berlin west/east that 1980s early young putin work top KGB with east German DDR Stasi top secret
@Brian Flavin: What are you on about?
@Brian Flavin: I’m starting to think your posts hold secret cryptic messages, just got out the decoder but this one is gonna take a bit of solving
@Steve Monk: you never learn Gobsh*t
@Brian Flavin: Sorry Brian, we just find it hard to understand what you write, may be you have dyslexia?
I’ll fix what you wrote:
“If he recovers from poisoning, he won’t back to Russia as he will fear getting killed by the KGB in a second assassination attempt, that Putin will order. Also, I saw museum in Berlin about the Berlin Well that separated west/east Germany, I saw a photo from the 1980s of a young Putin who worked as top KGB agent in the east German DDR Stasi top secret police.”
Yes, Putin was in the Stazi.
@Brian Flavin: hahaha… Did you use google translator to translate Russian into English?
@bombacho: you talk Gobsh*t
@Brian Flavin: “you talk Gobsh*t”. Another perfect example of the English language.
@bombacho: you are talk Gobsh*t
@Derek: yawn bored
@bombacho: bored your comment
@Brian Flavin: Oh Brian, what a tool you are! You’re attempt to write English is absolutely awful. Off to bed now like a good boy.
@Steve Monk: you talk Gobsh*t
@Steve Monk: I now understand, Brian is Deaf. What he wrote makes perfect sense to him, likely influenced by Irish Sign Language. That’s why what he wrote leaves out lots of spoken words, as literally signing all every spoken word would take too long to sign. ISL was developed by deaf people over 100s of years, it wasn’t invented by hearing people for deaf people. It’s an independent language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Sign_Language
Hope Brian is not embarrassed by me saying this. Just that people don’t understand why you have difficulty with written language.
@David Jordan: well done David, thanks for the info, next time people won’t judge,
It’s funny how the three accounts above, Sean bean, David Jordan and Brian flavin all have broken links to their social media profiles with no way to verify if they exist in reality.
@Tim Pot: if you enter a person’s name on Facebook you’ll find their social media profile by looking for the matching photo.
So Russia did this, and not the most sophisticated government organised assassins in the Middle East? Think a little harder.
free travel is wicked
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