Issued on:
An intruder smashed a bottle containing a chemical fluid in the campaign office of allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in the Russian city of Novosibirsk on Tuesday, forcing them to evacuate the premises, opposition activists said.
Advertising Read more
Three people were treated by medics and at least one was taken to hospital, said Sergei Boyko, an opposition politician and ally of Navalny, who is being treated in hospital in Germany after what Berlin said was an attempt to kill him by poisoning.
Boyko, who is running for the city council of Novosibirsk in Siberia in an election on Sunday, said it was unclear what substance had been thrown in the campaign office but that police had said it was not toxic.
Boyko's election campaign group described it as a chemical that was caustic and foul-smelling.
A "disgusting, stinging odour" filled the room, said Ivan Jdanov, who was in a meeting with around 50 people in the room.
CCTV footage shared by Navalny's allies showed two hooded men sprinting away after the incident.
The activists had gathered to listen to a talk on how to monitor elections, Boyko said.
Boyko is one of a number of Navalny supporters running in local elections across Russia at the weekend.
Navalny was admitted to hospital last month after collapsing on a plane to Moscow from Siberia, where he had met with allies running in the elections.
He was airlifted to Germany for treatment at a Berlin hospital where doctors said he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. On Monday, the opposition leader was taken out of a medically induced coma.
Russia has said it has seen no evidence that he was poisoned.
UN rights chief urges Russian cooperation
Meanwhile the top UN human rights official on Tuesday called on Russia to conduct, or cooperate with, a full independent investigation into Germany's findings into the incident.
"It is not good enough to simply deny he was poisoned, and deny the need for a thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigation into this assassination attempt," Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.
"It is incumbent on the Russian authorities to fully investigate who was responsible for this crime – a very serious crime that was committed on Russian soil."
Germany is consulting European and NATO partners on how to respond if Russia fails to help clear up what happened to Navalny.
Merkel cautious on Russia-Germany pipeline
One big area of discussion is the future of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is nearly complete and due to start operation next year.
At a meeting of her conservativeRead More – Source
[contf] [contfnew]
