BERLIN — The Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, currently under treatment in a German hospital, was poisoned with a deadly nerve agent from the Novichok family, the German government said on Wednesday. Citing what it called “unequivocal evidence,” Berlin demanded an explanation from Moscow in a case that seems bound to raise tensions once more between Russia and the West. Navalny has been the victim of a crime,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said in a statement. “It raises very serious questions that only the Russian government can and must answer.”Novichok, a Soviet-era weapon invented for military use, was used against Sergei V. Skripal, a former Soviet spy, and his daughter in a 2018 attack in Salisbury, England, that the British government attributed to Russia’s military intelligence arm, the G.R.U.

Source: New York Times September 02, 2020 14:05 UTC