Russia continues Navalny probe, wants to send additional investigators to Germany

Russia plans to send investigators to Germany to continue the probe into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Navalny became ill on a domestic flight in August and was later transported to a German hospital, where officials placed him in a medically induced coma. 

Medical personnel believe Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent, a substance also suspected to have been used in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. The hospital said over the weekend that Navalny has emerged from the coma.

“This request will include an application for the possible presence of Russian internal affairs investigators … and a Russian specialist when German colleagues are conducting investigations with Navalny, doctors and experts,” the transport department of Russia’s interior ministry in Siberia said in a statement, according to Reuters.

German officials told the wire service they have not received a request from the Russian authorities thus far.

Russia has said that it would not launch an official investigation into the case until hard evidence is presented showing Navalny was poisoned. 

The House Foreign Affairs Committee also called for an investigation into Navalny’s poisoning Tuesday.

“If the Russian government is once again determined to have used a chemical weapon against one of its own nationals, additional sanctions should be imposed,” Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and ranking member Michael McCaul (R-Texas) wrote in a joint letter to President Trump Tuesday.