Alexei Navalny’s allies win elections in Siberian city where he was allegedly poisoned as Macron pushed for Russia to investigate
As Russian opposition leader’s allies celebrate election wins, French President calls on Russia to investigate his poisoning.
Alexei Navalny’s allies celebrated symbolic victories at elections in the Siberian city where he is believed to have been poisoned with novichok, as President Macron of France urged Russia to investigate “without delay” the attempt on the opposition figurehead’s life.
Mr Navalny, 44, collapsed on a plane on August 20 after visiting Tomsk, 1,800 miles east of Moscow, to promote opposition candidates and investigate local pro-Kremlin politicians accused of corruption. He was flown to a clinic in Berlin two days later.
The Berlin clinic where Mr Navalny is being treated said on Monday his health was improving and he had been removed from a ventilator. It also said he was briefly able to get out of bed.
Doctors in Germany said Mr Navalny had been the victim of an attack with novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. A spokesman for Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said on Monday that laboratories in Sweden and France had independently confirmed this.
Berlin has said it will hold Russia responsible for the attack unless it proves otherwise, a stance that was backed by Mr Macron.
The French leader told Mr Putin in a telephone call that it was essential Russia carried out a “credible and transparent investigation” into the use of novichok, a banned chemical weapon.
Moscow has said it has seen no evidence that Mr Navalny, who emerged last week from an induced coma, was poisoned, and has accused Germany of trying to “discredit” Russia.
In Tomsk, Ksenia Fadeyeva, the head of Mr Navalny’s campaign headquarters, and Andrei Fateyev, another of his activists, both triumphed at city council polls in the Siberian city. The two pro-Kremlin politicians that Mr Navalny had accused of corruption lost their seats. “It was crucial to win after what happened [to Mr Navalny] in Tomsk,” Ms Fadeyeva, 28, said.
Elsewhere in Sunday’s regional elections, President Putin’s ruling United Russia party claimed the governorships in all 18 regions where voting took place. Golos, an independent election monitoring group, said it was investigating reports of ballot stuffing. There were also reports of intimidation against election monitors.
The Times
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