Defiant Navalny accuses Putin over poisoning

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind his poisoning on Thursday, as he vowed to return to Russia to press on with his opposition campaign. 

 
In the first media interview since his poisoning, Navalny gave harrowing details of his collapse on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow after he was poisoned by what the West identified as the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.   

The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner also said he would not be cowed by the experience, pledging to get fit as soon as possible to continue his fight.   

 “Not returning would mean that Putin has achieved his aim. And my job now is to stay the guy who’s not afraid,” he told the Spiegel weekly.   

 “I will not give Putin the gift of not returning to Russia,” he said, adding that for him “Putin is behind this act, I don’t see any other explanation.” The Kremlin immediately hit back at Navalny’s statements, calling them “groundless and unacceptable”, while the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said Putin had helped save the dissident’s life.   

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also claimed that Navalny was working with the CIA.   

 “If the authorities on behalf of which Peskov is speaking have the proof of the nonsense he’s saying, then it’s a matter of national security, and I demand this proof be published,” Navalny replied.   
BERLIN AFP Oct1, 2020