{"id":28688,"date":"2020-09-18T07:19:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T11:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=28688"},"modified":"2020-09-18T07:19:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T11:19:48","slug":"navalny-obviously-wasnt-poisoned-by-russia-he-was-chemically-assaulted-by-the-zio-anglo-american-axis-to-kill-the-nord-stream-2-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=28688","title":{"rendered":"Navalny obviously wasn&#8217;t poisoned by Russia, he was chemically assaulted by the Zio-Anglo-American Axis to kill the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>How the Poisoning of Alexey Navalny Turned Merkel Against Putin<\/h1>\n<h3>What Western officials describe as a botched attempt to kill a leading Kremlin critic has triggered a new downward spiral in Russia\u2019s ties with Europe.<\/h3>\n<p>By Henry Meyer and Patrick Donahue<br \/>\nBloomberg<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_28689\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28689\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28689\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/800x-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/800x-1.jpg 800w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/800x-1-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/800x-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-28689\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alexey Navalny, centre, surrounded by members of his team, at a rally to support political prisoners in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 29, 2019. Photographer: Dmitri Lovetsky\/AP Photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Alexey Navalny\u2019s team was at breakfast in the Siberian city of Tomsk when they received word that the opposition leader had fallen violently ill on his flight home to Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>The activists raced to the room in the Xander hotel he\u2019d left hours before and scrambled to collect evidence. \u201cIt was obvious to us that Navalny hadn\u2019t just gotten a bit sick,\u201d they recalled in an\u00a0<a title=\"Navalny Poisoned Before Leaving Hotel in Siberia, Allies Say (1)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-09-17\/navalny-poisoned-in-siberia-before-leaving-for-plane-allies-say\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram post Thursday<\/a>. \u201cWe decided to take everything that might be of use.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure-expandable\" data-align=\"center\" data-id=\"364745318\" data-image-size=\"column\" data-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"image\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open image in viewer\">\n<div id=\"lazy-img-364745318\" class=\"lazy-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-img__image loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iS0b7R.XuR3c\/v1\/600x-1.jpg\" alt=\"Russia Opposition Leader Alexey Navalny Appears In Court\" data-native-src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iS0b7R.XuR3c\/v1\/-1x-1.jpg\" data-img-type=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"news-figure-caption-text caption\">Alexey Navalny during a hearing at the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, on Aug. 22, 2019.<\/div>\n<div class=\"news-figure-credit credit\">Photographer: Andrey Rudakov\/Bloomberg<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A plastic Svyatoi Istochnik (\u2018Holy Source\u2019) water bottle they picked up would weeks later be found by a German military lab to have\u00a0<a title=\"Merkel Seeks Action Against Russia After Putin Foe Poisoned (2)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-09-02\/german-government-says-navalny-was-poisoned-with-novichok\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traces<\/a>\u00a0of Novichok, the weapons-grade nerve agent first developed by the Soviets. The use of a banned chemical weapon in the Aug. 20 attack has left German authorities with little doubt that the operation was ordered from the highest levels of the Russian government, according to three officials in Berlin familiar with the findings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"thirdparty-embed \">\n<div class=\"thirdparty-embed__container\"><iframe id=\"instagram-embed-0\" class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CFOnffrHZ0d\/embed\/?cr=1&amp;v=12&amp;wp=488&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com&amp;rp=%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2020-09-18%2Falexey-navalny-s-sloppy-poisoning-turned-angela-merkel-against-vladimir-putin#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1608.444999999847%7D\" height=\"694\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Quick action by the pilot of his flight to make an emergency landing and the medical personnel that first treated him likely saved the 44-year-old\u2019s life, German officials and his colleagues said. The sloppiness of his would-be assassins left a trail of evidence pointing to the Kremlin that Berlin could not ignore.<\/p>\n<div class=\"hardwall\" data-position=\"4\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"softwall\" data-position=\"4\"><\/div>\n<aside class=\"inline-newsletter\" data-state=\"ready\">\n<div class=\"tp-container-inner\"><iframe id=\"offer-0-Le2bQ\" title=\"offer-0-Le2bQ\" src=\"https:\/\/buy.tinypass.com\/checkout\/template\/show?displayMode=inline&amp;containerSelector=.inline-newsletter&amp;templateId=OT8CTZP3F8VM&amp;offerId=fakeOfferId&amp;showCloseButton=false&amp;trackingId=%7Bjcx%7DH4sIAAAAAAAAAI2R3WvCMBTF_5c8G7hp0vY2b3WzrIIfYFedb2mb1YDWfqQqjP3vqzI3hD0scB-S3zkHcu4HUaYgksQv0XMXxVU7JSNSq1KnRp_jK3HAAQoBZUjBp4xTQIoup0U7480rXy2nq3G4HgQu9wr0OKAoQDhZwVBkXoC--658FaAYgvWl1q3RVa5v0ZPNNEz81Jl7q_SBTi467605VjcZQ0BuAE4lheE41gWb9bWuGoVtnjeF6OExPcx_zN3ueE70od4rq9fxYoLzbRSJyYzxwbFT3Z0Radtej4j9vt_MiwSfku2SR5jOyC9LVWtUZa-Sqt_vRyRXh1qZsuruDyfTmRsnJ_p3gQFNcR02Gz5-U14Zs135nwJNfd2IB0yKfJihDelmgXRAZFK7hZA-BEoicm8Q951uw1JXdvAUh_z6AbsnknkALuMBBp9fV-Us9f4BAAA&amp;experienceId=EXJAT7V2N6SV&amp;tbc=%7Bjzx%7Dt_3qvTkEkvt3AGEeiiNNgG4vvv3g71Zb03DlGRaVRTiDBL-Ym2pmkS2blskNGeA4nY_mRrUad7ui2NMIUiYGXTXbJ3umw9QFbtNlCBFj_ISGYfmZa-No5m8BBzKkCPARjylU0Z664w9lha1BgkmqDg&amp;iframeId=offer-0-Le2bQ&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2020-09-18%2Falexey-navalny-s-sloppy-poisoning-turned-angela-merkel-against-vladimir-putin&amp;parentDualScreenLeft=0&amp;parentDualScreenTop=23&amp;parentWidth=1186&amp;parentHeight=941&amp;parentOuterHeight=1052&amp;aid=IHFDsFInrJ&amp;contentSection=content-article&amp;pageViewId=2020-09-18-07-13-08-853-drM3qU3SPJSBAW09-536d863084d042bd184b69875fa7a984&amp;visitId=v-2020-09-18-07-13-08-859-V8WAqX3BYa6gI1hg-536d863084d042bd184b69875fa7a984&amp;userProvider=publisher_user_ref&amp;userToken=&amp;customCookies=%7B%7D&amp;hasLoginRequiredCallback=false&amp;width=150&amp;_qh=e6e6d94d93\" name=\"offer-0-Le2bQ\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>What Western officials call a botched attempt to kill a leading opposition figure has triggered a new\u00a0<a title=\"Angela Merkel Exasperated by Putin as Navalny Lies in a Coma (2)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-08-25\/merkel-is-beyond-exasperated-by-putin-as-navalny-lies-in-a-coma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">downward spiral<\/a>\u00a0in Russia\u2019s ties with Europe, and above all with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose patience had already been tested by President Vladimir Putin. Her government was grappling with how to respond to a 2015 cyberattack on the Bundestag and a 2019 killing in Berlin, both of which were ordered by Russian state actors, German prosecutors say.<\/p>\n<p>Even against the Kremlin\u2019s track record of malfeasance, the brazen targeting of a chief critic would be devastating to Putin\u2019s already low standing in the West, a European diplomat said.<\/p>\n<p>The Kremlin says it found no proof Navalny was poisoned and has rejected Merkel\u2019s calls to open a criminal investigation. Russian officials have presented a variety of conflicting accounts of what may have happened, ranging from claims Navalny was merely sick to suggestions he was poisoned after he was taken to Germany in a medically induced coma for treatment days after the attack.<\/p>\n<p>Western officials dismiss those claims. Calling on Moscow to answer for the attack, the\u00a0<a title=\"Company Overview\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/quote\/345300Z:BB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">European Union<\/a>\u00a0and others are weighing a response that could range from expelling Russian diplomats to more painful economic sanctions. Merkel has\u00a0<a title=\"Merkel Says Response to Russia Over Navalny Must Be European (1)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-09-08\/merkel-says-response-to-russia-over-navalny-must-be-european\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suggested<\/a> she could even take action against the 9.5-billion-euro ($11 billion) Nord Stream 2 pipeline to carry Russian gas to Germany.<\/p>\n<p>From his Berlin hospital room, Navalny has begun\u00a0<a title=\"Navalny Jokes, Smiles, Plans to Return to Russia After Recovery\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-09-15\/navalny-plans-to-return-to-russia-after-surviving-poison-attack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">posting Instagram shots<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Known for his YouTube videos exposing official corruption and targeting the ruling party, Navalny has long been a target for Kremlin ire. Putin and other top officials go to elaborate linguistic lengths to avoid saying his name in public. Putin\u2019s spokesman calls him \u201cthe Berlin patient.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"thirdparty-embed \">\n<div class=\"thirdparty-embed__container\"><iframe id=\"instagram-embed-1\" class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CFJwV0Dly0Z\/embed\/?cr=1&amp;v=12&amp;wp=488&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com&amp;rp=%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2020-09-18%2Falexey-navalny-s-sloppy-poisoning-turned-angela-merkel-against-vladimir-putin#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A1644.5999999996275%7D\" height=\"694\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But while over his years of activism, he\u2019s been repeatedly jailed for weeks at a time and attacked on the streets by opponents \u2014\u00a0at one point nearly losing sight in one eye \u2014\u00a0the poisoning attack marks the first clear attempt on his life.<\/p>\n<p>The Kremlin has a long and deadly history of using such weapons to go after those who fell out of favor, with mixed success. The 2018 attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, U.K., didn\u2019t kill him, but sickened several others and killed one bystander who came into contact with the Novichok.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-08-25\/putin-poison-and-the-importance-of-alexey-navalny-quicktake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more:\u00a0Putin, Poison and the Importance of Alexey Navalny: QuickTake<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The attack on Navalny took place in the heart of Siberia, where he would seemingly have been an easier target for assassins from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, whose agents had been following his every move for years, according to his allies.<\/p>\n<p>Navalny and his team were in Tomsk filming a video about local corruption ahead of regional elections, hoping to mobilize supporters to defeat the ruling party. A few of the team had stayed with the camera crew to finish shooting while Navalny with several others went back to Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the aircraft took off, however, Navalny was stricken, screaming in pain and losing consciousness, according to witnesses and video from the flight. The crew asked if any doctors were aboard and made plans for an emergency landing in Omsk, the nearest city.<\/p>\n<p>As they descended, the airport tower warned them that a bomb threat had been phoned in to the terminal. But the pilots weren\u2019t fazed, asking for the ambulance to be dispatched directly to the runway.<\/p>\n<p>Had the plane continued its 4.5-hour flight to Moscow, Navalny could have died, according to allies.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote\" data-align=\"center\">\n<p class=\"passage\"><span class=\"news-designed-for-consumer-media\">\u201cThey took evidence from under their noses (a bottle with Novichok from the Tomsk hotel) and got it out of the country\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>On the ground in Omsk, medical personnel quickly read his symptoms as poisoning and rushed him to the toxicology ward. He was administered atropine, the only drug effective against agents like Novichok.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Tomsk, police still hadn\u2019t secured his hotel room even as news of his illness spread around the world. Navalny\u2019s colleagues took the water bottle and other evidence and headed for the airport to make their way to Germany, where they hoped he\u2019d be taken for treatment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure-expandable\" data-align=\"center\" data-id=\"364745528\" data-image-size=\"column\" data-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"image\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open image in viewer\">\n<div id=\"lazy-img-364745528\" class=\"lazy-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-img__image loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/i95krVTZMsuU\/v0\/600x-1.jpg\" alt=\"Russia Opposition Without Navalny\" data-native-src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/i95krVTZMsuU\/v0\/-1x-1.jpg\" data-img-type=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"news-figure-caption-text caption\">Medics load Navalny into a medevac plane in Omsk, Russia, on Aug. 22.<\/div>\n<div class=\"news-figure-credit credit\">Photographer: Kira Yarmysh\/Alexei Navalny&#8217;s press team<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe FBK brilliantly outplayed the FSB,\u201d opposition politician Vladimir Milov wrote on Twitter, referring to the Russian initials of Navalny\u2019s Anti-Corruption Foundation. \u201cThey took evidence from under their noses (a bottle with Novichok from the Tomsk hotel) and got it out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vladimir Uglev, an expert from the team that developed the poison decades ago, said he suspects the Novichok was put on the water bottle in an effort to kill Navalny during the flight or shortly after. \u201cThe people who did this calculated everything down to the smallest detail, but they failed to take into account one crucial thing: the human factor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials initially refused to allow Navalny to be flown to Germany, delaying the private jet that had come to fetch him long enough that its crew had to spend hours longer resting under aviation-safety rules. But by Saturday morning, less than 48 hours after falling ill, he was flown to Berlin by a private group backed by Merkel\u2019s government.<\/p>\n<p>Medical tests at the Charite hospital in the heart of the German capital quickly showed that Navalny had been poisoned with a cholinesterase inhibitor, a category of chemicals that includes pesticides, medications and nerve agents.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure-expandable\" data-align=\"center\" data-id=\"364732830\" data-image-size=\"column\" data-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"image\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open image in viewer\">\n<div id=\"lazy-img-364732830\" class=\"lazy-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-img__image loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iAvkEjRt0TiQ\/v0\/600x-1.jpg\" alt=\"Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel Meets Russia's President Vladimir Putin \" data-native-src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iAvkEjRt0TiQ\/v0\/-1x-1.jpg\" data-img-type=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"news-figure-caption-text caption\">Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin.<\/div>\n<div class=\"news-figure-credit credit\">Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi\/Bloomberg<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Days later, the German military\u2019s Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology, one of the few laboratories in the world with first-hand knowledge of the toxin, made the Novichok conclusion. That Wednesday morning, Merkel gathered six top cabinet members to inform them \u2014 and agreed that a swift response was necessary. Police tightened security around the hospital, fearing another attempt on his life.<\/p>\n<p>For Merkel, a self-described Russophile who grew up in East Germany, a deep well of patience had been emptied. Her message to the Kremlin was blunt by her standards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s clear that Alexey Navalny is the victim of a crime,\u201d Merkel told reporters gathered hours later. \u201cThe intent was to silence him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-09-18\/alexey-navalny-s-sloppy-poisoning-turned-angela-merkel-against-vladimir-putin\">https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-09-18\/alexey-navalny-s-sloppy-poisoning-turned-angela-merkel-against-vladimir-putin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How the Poisoning of Alexey Navalny Turned Merkel Against Putin What Western officials describe as a botched attempt to kill a leading Kremlin critic has triggered a new downward spiral in Russia\u2019s ties with Europe. By Henry Meyer and Patrick &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=28688\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}