Russian police launch preliminary examination into Alexei Navalny’s illness

Russian police on August 27 reportedly announced that they had begun a preliminary examination of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s critic Alexei Navalny’s illness. According to reports, the transport police in Siberia said that they have started a ‘pre-investigation check’ into what led to the opposition leader’s hospitalisation in the city of Omsk. The investigation comes after the Kremlin dismissed German doctor’s findings that Navalny was apparently poisoned. 

As per reports, the ‘pre-investigation check’ will help to establish ‘all the circumstances’ and decide whether to open a criminal probe. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reportedly rejected international calls for a transparent investigation into the incident. Peskov said that the decision was down to law enforcement authorities but that it was not possible to save Navalny was poisoned since no toxic substance had been identified. 

READ: German Chancellor Angela Merkel Frustrated With Putin As Navalny Lies In Coma: Reports

The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner fell ill on a plane to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk. The plane made an emergency landing and Navalny spent two days in a clinic at Omsk in a coma before being transferred to Berlin’s Charite Hospital. While Navalny’s allies suspect a possible poisoning, the Russian doctors had said that their tests did not find any traces of poison while they treated Putin’s critic with the same antidote that German medics are using. 

Police search for evidence 

The preliminary checks to determine whether a crime has been committed comes a week after the incident. As per reports, it also comes after police and plain-clothed security service agents questioned doctors at the hospital without making any public statements. 

READ: Kremlin Spokesman Doesn't Call Navalny By Name

The transport police reportedly said that they searched locations that Navalny visited and his hotel. They have even examined security camera footage and confiscated ‘more than 100 items that could have value as evidence’. The police further added that they did not find any ‘strong acting or narcotic substances’. 

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "frustrated" with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the limit of which peaked after the recent suspected poison attack Navalny, who is currently being treated in Berlin. Merkel have reportedly said that she is irritated as Putin has shone no flexibility in handling the issue. The reason behind Merkel's exasperation is not just the latest case of Navalny, but also the 2019 assassination in Berlin park of Chechen exile and 2015 cyberattack on the lower house of the German parliament, both of which are said to be anchored by Russia.

READ: Pressure Mounts On Russia To Investigate Navalny's Poisoning

READ: German Response To Kremlin Allegations Over Navalny