The Kremlin on Thursday said there was no reason to blame Russia for opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s poisoning. Kremlin’s statement comes a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Navalny had been poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him.
Denying the accusations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned the West against jumping to conclusions and imposing sanctions.
Putin critic Navalny fell sick on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20, after which he was taken to a hospital in Omsk from where he was shifted to Berlin's Charite hospital as pressure mounted on Russia to allow him to be moved abroad.