Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said reports revealing new details about the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were “funny to read.”
A CNN-Bellingcat investigation into the apparent attack found evidence that Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, formed a team that specialized in nerve agents similar to the one Navalny was poisoned with and had been keeping tabs on the 44-year-old dissident for years before he collapsed during an August flight and was rushed to the hospital.
“We are already used to the fact that the United States and other Western countries simply announce in the media yet another set of accusations against Russia, be it hackers or some kind of a sensation about the double or even triple poisoning of Navalny,” Lavrov told reporters.
“All this news is funny to read, but it says only one thing — or rather the manner in which this news is presented says only one thing — that our Western partners do not have any ethical standards and lack skill in normal diplomatic work and [have] unwillingness to comply with the international legal norms when it comes to finding the facts,” the foreign minister said.
Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal opponents, has been on a long road to recovery since the apparent attack, which occurred on Aug. 20. After initially being held by Russian doctors, he was released to Germany, where investigators determined he was poisoned with a Novichok-class nerve agent, a potent toxin produced in Russia.
Navalny spent some time in a coma before he awoke. He placed full blame for the attack on Putin and Russian operatives.
“I don’t think. I’m sure that he is responsible,” he said of Putin during an October interview.
Navalny reiterated to CNN during a recent interview that he was “totally sure that Putin was aware” of the operations of the elite FSB team sent to assassinate him.
“The operation of such skill and for such a long time cannot exist without a ruling from the chief of the FSB, Mr. [Alexander] Bortnikov,” Navalny said. “And he would never dare it without the direct order of President Putin.”
