Germany has “proven beyond doubt” that the chemical nerve agent novichok was used to poison Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition activist who is being treated in a Berlin hospital after collapsing in Siberia last month.
The finding resulted from a toxicological test carried out by a specialist military laboratory on samples taken from Mr Navalny, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, defence minister, said on Wednesday. The test had “proven beyond doubt” that he had been poisoned with a “chemical nerve agent of the novichok group”, she said.
Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union, was also used in the 2018 Salisbury poisonings that targeted former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.