Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s “hideous” poisoning last month represents “another grave blow against democracy in Russia,” according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other leading democratic allies.
“Any use of chemical weapons, anywhere, anytime, by anybody, under any circumstances whatsoever, is unacceptable and contravenes the international norms prohibiting the use of such weapons,” the top diplomats from the G-7, the bloc of the world’s seven leading industrialized democracies, said Tuesday afternoon in a joint statement. “We will continue to monitor closely how Russia responds to international calls for an explanation of the hideous poisoning of Mr. Navalny.”
Their condemnation of “the confirmed poisoning” of Navalny leaves no room for doubt about the nature of the sudden illness that nearly claimed the life of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent domestic critic. The G-7 statement comes just days after President Trump expressed uncertainty about the evidence pertaining to the attack.
“So I don’t know exactly what happened. I think it’s — it’s tragic,” the president said Friday. “It’s terrible. It shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look.”
Navalny was traveling in Siberia when he fell ill on Aug. 20, a condition that Russian doctors attributed to “a sudden drop in blood sugar levels.” After his transfer to a hospital in Berlin, German officials announced that he had been targeted by a Novichok nerve agent — the same kind of toxin used in the attempted assassination of former Soviet double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018, who was living in the United Kingdom at the time of the attack.
Trump stated his desire to learn more about the case moments after noting that U.S. officials are attempting to negotiate an arms control treaty with Russia.
“I think we have to look at it very seriously if that’s the case, and I think we will,” Trump said Friday. “At the same time, with Russia, we’re right now negotiating a nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which is very important. It’s a very important thing. To me, it’s the most important thing.”
The top human rights official at the United Nations rejected Kremlin attempts to deny responsibility for the incident.
“The number of cases of poisoning, or other forms of targeted assassination, of current or former Russian citizens, either within Russia itself or on foreign soil, over the past two decades is profoundly disturbing,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday. “And the failure in many cases to hold perpetrators accountable and provide justice for the victims or their families is also deeply regrettable and hard to explain or justify.”
The G-7 envoys likewise took Navalny’s case as emblematic of the Russian government’s hostility to criticism.
“This attack against opposition leader Navalny is another grave blow against democracy and political plurality in Russia,” Pompeo and the other G-7 foreign ministers said, along with European Union High Representative Josep Borrell. “It constitutes a serious threat to those men and women engaged in defending the political and civil freedoms that Russia herself has committed to guarantee.”
