Around 200 People Questioned In Connection With Navalny's Case - Russian Interior Ministry

The Russian police have questioned around 200 people in connection with the incident with opposition figure Alexey Navalny, and checks continue, with staffers of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) being subject to re-examination, the Russian Interior Ministry's transport department said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2020) The Russian police have questioned around 200 people in connection with the incident with opposition figure Alexey Navalny, and checks continue, with staffers of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) being subject to re-examination, the Russian Interior Ministry's transport department said on Monday.

"Transport police officers have carried out an extensive range of investigative and law enforcement intelligence operations. To obtain information that could help establish what really happened, around 200 people were questioned. These are the people who were in contact with Navalny or witnessed his staying in Tomsk and Tomsk region, and also some of the passengers who traveled on the same plane with him," the interior ministry said in a statement.

"Taking into consideration videos, comments and interviews with different takes on the incident, transport police staffers are implementing extra investigative actions. In particular, they are re-examining FBK staffers who accompanied Navalny during the trip," the statement read on.

Investigators are analyzing the obtained explanations, expert conclusions and other materials, the ministry noted.

The Russian Interior Ministry also said that Germany, Sweden and France had not yet provided any response to the request for legal assistance on the Navalny case.

The Russian politician fell ill during a domestic flight in Russia on August 20. He was initially treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane had to urgently land. Two days later, once the doctors established he was fit for cross-border aerial transportation, the 44-year-old was flown to the Berlin-based Charite hospital for further treatment.

It was not until September 2 that the German government claimed Navalny's samples contained traces of a Novichok group substance. According to Berlin, this conclusion was confirmed by labs in France and Sweden. Tests in Russia did not show traces of poison. Moscow demands that Germany provide evidence.

On September 7, Navalny awakened from a medically-induced coma and separated from ventilators in the Berlin clinic. The first internet appearance he made since his incapacitation was a picture of himself and his family from the hospital ward posted last week on the first day that he breathed on his own.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is currently investigating the incident surrounding Navalny's illness. The Russian authorities have attempted to cooperate with their counterparts in Berlin, although Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik on Friday that the German authorities had rejected these approaches.