German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny during his hospital treatment for poisoning, a sign of how seriously the case is being taken in Berlin.
“I’m very grateful to Chancellor Merkel for visiting me in the hospital,” Navalny said on Twitter. “The meeting happened. It’s not worth calling it ‘secret.’ More a private meeting and conversation with the family.”
Neither Navalny’s spokeswoman nor Merkel’s press office immediately responded to a request for comment on the visit.
Photo: AFP
The meeting between Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s critic, who was treated at a Berlin hospital, underscores just how important the Navalny case is for Merkel. The issue has threatened relations between the two countries.
Merkel has demanded the Kremlin investigate the attack and is discussing a response with European and NATO allies.
She has backed away from her support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would bring Russian gas straight to Germany.
STRAINED RELATIONS
Relations with Russia had already been strained over issues such as the war in eastern Ukraine, a cyberattack on German parliament, and the murder of a Chechen national in Berlin park.
Navalny was last week discharged from inpatient treatment at the Charite hospital in downtown Berlin, with doctors saying that he might make a full recovery.
He plans to stay in Germany for further treatment before returning to Russia.
He had initially been hospitalized in the Siberian city of Omsk, where his domestic Russian flight made an emergency landing after he fell violently ill.
The Kremlin has rejected allegations it had any role in his illness and accused German authorities of failing to cooperate.
Laboratories in Sweden and France have confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has taken its own sample for testing, the German government said.
Der Spiegel magazine first reported that Merkel visited Navalny.
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