The U.S. State Department reportedly accused the Russian Federal Security Service of poisoning anti-Putin dissident Alexei Navalny.
State Department officials said Russian state actors were pushing conspiracy theories instead of answering how Navalny came to be poisoned aboard a private jet flying over Russia in October, according to the Hill.
“The United States believes that officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) used a Novichok nerve agent to poison Mr. Navalny,” a State Department representative told the Hill. “There is no plausible explanation for Mr. Navalny’s poisoning other than Russian government involvement and responsibility. Of course, President Putin and the Russian government would have us believe otherwise. Russia has suggested numerous, often contradictory, conspiracy theories. Let’s be clear – these types of conspiracy theories are nothing more than a means to deflect attention from the serious questions before the Russian government which it has yet to answer.”
Officials with the State Department said they have “full confidence” that Navalny was poisoned by a chemical agent produced by the GosNIIOKhT state chemical research institute for three decades.
The State Department’s assessment confirmed the publication of a joint investigation furnished by Navalny, online media outlet Bellingcat, and CNN that claimed the poison was placed in Navalny’s underwear by an elite unit of the FBS.
“The United States has full confidence in the OPCW’s findings, which confirmed earlier results from German, French and Swedish labs, that Mr. Navalny was exposed to an unscheduled Novichok nerve agent,” said the representative.
Navalny is recovering in Germany after being flown to the country for emergency medical treatment following the poisoning.
