A senior State Department official blamed Russia for the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, citing the attack as the latest impediment to productive dialogue between Washington and Moscow.
“That’s not good for not just one of the leading opposition figures in Russia, personally, for the nature of the relationship between the Russian government and its society, but the signal it sends to the outside world,” George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary for Europe, said Wednesday during an event with the German Marshall Fund. “And so, I think, despite interest in trying to have an honest, transparent discussion with the Russians on certain policy issues, Russia frequently takes actions that complicate that path and that conversation,” he said.
That’s the most direct attribution of blame for the poisoning from the U.S. government since Navalny fell ill last month. Kent offered the observation after Germany reported that Navalny was stricken by the same Novichok chemical weapon used in the attempted assassination of a former Soviet double agent living in London two years ago, a finding that prompted a cascade of condemnations from Western governments and NATO.
“The use of a military-grade nerve agent makes it even more urgent that the Russian authorities conduct a full and transparent investigation,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday. “Those responsible must be identified and held accountable. We will be consulting with Germany and all Allies on the implications of these findings. NATO regards any use of chemical weapons as a threat to international peace and security.”
A senior Russian diplomat accused Germany of stoking “another information campaign” against Russia after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s team announced that analysts had found “unequivocal evidence” that Navalny was poisoned by a Novichok. The Russian anti-corruption activist is being treated in Berlin, where he was transferred after Russian doctors at a hospital in Siberia claimed that he was suffering from “a sudden drop in blood sugar levels.”
“Instead of thorough investigation and scrupulous joint work with the aim of obtaining authentic results, our partners prefer to make more public statements without presenting any facts,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, per state media. “What is most important and sad at the same time is that our partners openly neglect — today it was demonstrated very clearly — the available mechanisms of legal interaction for obtaining genuine results.”
The German assessment comes just days after Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun traveled to Moscow for a wide-ranging discussion, with an emphasis on the political crisis in Belarus since autocrat Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in a presidential election widely deemed fraudulent. Russia has provided aid to Lukashenko, while U.S. officials are considering sanctions to punish the regime’s violent attempt to silence the protests in the days following the election.
“The U.S. will continue to talk to our allies and partners in Europe, to coordinate possibly targeted sanctions for those that were clearly engaged in both the brutality and the violence against peaceful citizens and protesters, as well as the manifest fraud that was perpetrated on election day,” Kent said Wednesday.
Kent echoed Biegun’s warning of “painful consequences” for Russia if Vladimir Putin were to initiate “an overt military intervention” to prop up Lukashenko, adding that U.S. officials plan to continue making the case that such a maneuver “would be catastrophic” for Russia’s reputation in Belarus.
“I’m not quite sure the Russians always understand what’s in their own interests,” he said, observing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a significant deterioration of pro-Russian sentiment in the former Soviet satellite.
“So, I think it’s important for us — the U.S., for the Western countries — to continue the dialogue with Russia,” Kent said.
