The Kremlin said on Tuesday it saw no need for now to investigate circumstances leading up to opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s grave illness, and that a German clinic’s initial diagnosis of poisoning was not yet conclusive.

Navalny, an outspoken opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was airlifted to Germany for treatment on Saturday after collapsing on a plane while flying back to Moscow from Siberia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the German clinic had not conclusively identified the substance behind Navalny’s illness and that it was unclear why German doctors were “rushing” to use the word poisoning.

“There must be a reason for an investigation. For the moment, all you and I see is that the patient is in a coma,” Peskov told reporters.

The foreign ministry said the alleged poisoning was not of benefit to the country’s leadership, while Peskov added that any suggestions that Putin was somehow involved in Navalny’s illness were untrue and “hot air” that the Kremlin would not take seriously.

Peskov said that if poisoning was definitively established as the cause, “then of course, this will be a reason for an investigation.”

In response to the Kremlin’s comments, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said it was “obvious the crime wouldn’t be investigated properly and the criminal found.”

The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, a Putin ally, said one of its committees would launch a probe to determine whether foreign forces had played a hand in Navalny’s illness in order to fuel tensions in Russia.

Demands from abroad for an independent probe are intensifying.

On Monday, top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell asked Russia to investigate, a call echoed on Tuesday by U.S. ambassador to Russia John Sullivan and Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde.

German doctors treating Navalny at a Berlin hospital said on Monday that medical examinations indicated poisoning with some kind of cholinesterase inhibitor, although the specific substance is not yet known.

Russian health officials contradicted that diagnosis, saying Navalny had tested negative for cholinesterase inhibitors when he was hospitalised in Omsk last week.

Peskov said doctors at the Omsk hospital had battled for three days to treat Navalny and had possibly saved his life.

“We don’t understand why our German colleagues are rushing with the word poisoning,” he said.

Navalny has been a tahorn in the Kremlin’s side for more than a decade, exposing what he says is high-level graft and mobilising protests. He has been repeatedly detained for organising public meetings and sued over corruption investigations, and was barred from running in the 2018 presidential election.

Germany said on Monday Navalny was being guarded due to concerns for his safety. Navalny’s wife was filmed entering the hospital on Tuesday but declined to speak to journalists.

Reacting to developments related to Navalny and a political crisis in neighbouring Belarus, the Russian rouble fell to multi-month lows on Tuesday.

Reuters

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