Russia Prepares Counter-Demarche At OPCW Over Navalny Case - Foreign Ministry

Faizan Hashmi Published October 08, 2021 | 08:20 PM

Russia has prepared a counter-demarche at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in response to a letter from a number of countries regarding the situation with opposition figure Alexey Navalny, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2021) Russia has prepared a counter-demarche at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in response to a letter from a number of countries regarding the situation with opposition figure Alexey Navalny, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Earlier this week, the United States, the United Kingdom and 43 other countries from the OPCW sent to Russia a list of questions on the Navalny case, and the answer is expected within 10 days.

"In the section 'Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is a package of documents that constitutes a Russian counter-demarche to the OPCW under clause 2 of Article IX of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, prepared, among other things, in response to the attack against us by 45 states led by Great Britain in connection with the situation around A. Navalny," the ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said that Berlin in fact prevents the official investigation regarding the Navalny case happening in Russia.

The ministry also said that Russia wants to receive from Germany information on who accompanied Navalny on a plane from Omsk to Berlin within 10 days.

In addition, the ministry said that it wants a response from Germany and the United Kingdom on why they prevent Russian law enforcement officers from interrogating Navalny's ally Maria Pevchikh.

"The Russian side urges the (OPCW) secretariat to provide the video materials at its disposal, which should have been filmed by the secretariat's specialists, first when taking biological samples from A.A. Navalny at the Charite clinic (in Berlin), and then, when separating and sealing them, to be transferred to laboratories designated by the secretariat for research, as well as to inform about any other actions of the secretariat in the framework of providing technical assistance to Germany in the incident with Russian citizen Navalny," the ministry added.