Chronology of the situation around Alexey Navalny’s

Unofficial translation

After the emergency hospitalization of Alexey Navalny in Omsk on 20 August 2020, the western media space has been promoting a version of his deliberate poisoning with the aim of neutralizing him as a leader of the Russian non-systemic opposition. Even before the Omsk doctors announced the cause of his hospitalization, his team and western sources planted the idea that the alleged crime against him could have been commanded by official Russian government agencies. The conclusions of Russian doctors, who had not found any traces of toxic agents in the Navalny's systems, were immediately denounced, without any substantiation, as false and biased. At the same time, the assurances provided by Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov that all necessary assistance would be provided to Navalny, including abroad, if necessary, were disregarded.

From the outset, the German authorities and the Cinema for Peace Foundation, NGO based in Germany, actively contributed to transportation of Alexey Navalny from Omsk to Berlin for medical treatment in the Charité hospital and organized a charter flight for him on 22 August 2020.

At the same time, the MFA of Russia did not receive any official requests from Germany required in such cases for the plane’s flight to Russia and for the entry of its crew and passengers into Russia. Nevertheless, the necessary permits were issued. The German doctors were lodged at a hotel and were allowed to visit Navalny in the Omsk hospital. They met with the Russian doctors, who at that time objected to transporting the patient to Germany due to his serious condition.

However, in the evening of 21 August 2020, the consent for his transportation was received. It took some time to process medical documents (the family’s refusal to receive medical assistance in Russia), settle legal issues (Alexey Navalny was under travel restrictions, as he was the subject of several criminal administrative and civil proceedings)^[1], prepare and deliver the patient to the airport in a specialized vehicle, as well as to maintain the aircraft and to enable the crew to rest. As a result, the plane took off from Omsk at 8 am local time on 22 August 2020.

Meanwhile, western media outlets claimed that the Russian authorities were uncooperative, did not allow the German doctors to approach Navalny and deliberately delayed his transportation to Germany so as to gain time for the traces of poison to disappear from the patient’s body.

In Germany, the patient was granted the status of "guest of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel." It was used as grounds for providing 24/7 state protection to him and to the persons accompanying him. However, an explanation was later provided according to which Alexey Navalny was not a guest of the Federal Government, since it had not officially invited him to the country.

Based on the results of the patient’s examination at the Charité hospital on 24 August 2020, German doctors confirmed that there was clinical evidence pointing to the fact that Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a cholinesterase inhibitor. On the same day, Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Heiko Maas made statements urging the Russian authorities to conduct "a transparent and comprehensive investigation into the circumstances around the Navalny's illness," to identify those responsible for it and to punish them. In turn, on 24 August 2020, the Chief Toxicologist of the Siberian Federal District and Omsk Region Alexander Sabayev delivered a statement, according to which there were no signs of poisoning with cholinesterase inhibitors in the Navalny's systems.

Since then, there has been speculations in the western press, based on "insider information from anonymous sources" as well as similar cases in the past (the so-called Skripal case and the incident concerning Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev), that Navalny was allegedly attacked with a substance from the Novichok group of nerve agents.

On 27 August 2020, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation sent its first official request for international legal assistance to the Federal Office of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany, asking, among other things, for the provision of the evidence that German doctors were referring to when asserting that the case involved a poisoning of the patient. It was not until 4 September 2020 that the request was forwarded to the Berlin Justice Department in charge of his case. And it was not until 6 September 2020 that Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview with the German media that the German Foreign Ministry had agreed its implementation. State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany Miguel Berger twice confirmed to the Russian ambassador in Berlin that the Russian side’s request would certainly be satisfied. As of 1 February 2021, there was no substantive response from the German side.

There were calls in the media and from certain representatives of the German parliament deputy corps opposing the transfer of Navalny’s biological samples and test results to Russia, as this would enable the Russian intelligent services to figure out German specialists’ secret methods of detecting the so-called Novichok group poisons in the human body. Thereby, they effectively acknowledged the advanced expertise of the German Armed Forces with regard to these weapons, which, according to the western legend, could be produced only in Russia.

On 2 September 2020, Berlin decided to "raise the stakes." The fake information about Novichok was "confirmed" by German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert, who said experts from the Bundeswehr Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology had found traces of the poison in Navalny’s body. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of her cabinet publicly demanded "explanations" from Moscow. Berlin officially initiated consultations with the EU and NATO to consider new sanctions against our country. At the same time, Germany requested the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to conduct an investigation and bring Russia to account for violating the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Russian ambassador in Berlin was summoned to the Federal Foreign Office, where he was informed accordingly.

This was followed by intense promotion of the idea that the German government should scrap the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.

On 3 September 2020, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany Heiko Maas announced that the results of toxicology tests conducted by German experts would be transmitted to the OPCW. The OPCW Technical Secretariat said it was waiting for a request from Germany and had adopted some "specific preparatory measures." The EU published a statement condemning "the assassination attempt on Alexey Navalny" and threatening to take "restrictive measures" against Russia unless "an impartial international investigation" of the incident was conducted.

On 4 September 2020, Germany transported Alexey Navalny’s biological samples for analysis at specialized laboratories in Sweden and France (according to O. Scott, head of division of Sweden's FOI military laboratory, the results were ready as early as 6 September 2020). Berlin submitted to the OPCW Director-General, head of the Technical Secretariat, a formal request for technical assistance in accordance with subparagraph 38 (е) of Article VIII of the CWC. The foreign ministers of Germany and France issued a joint statement claiming that a violation of international law had occurred in the territory of Russia because the "poisoning of Alexey Navalny" had allegedly involved the use of a chemical weapon. Following an emergency meeting of the NATO Council, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg demanded that Russia "provide complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the OPCW." The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that experts from the Bundeswehr Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology had found traces of the nerve agent in Navalny's blood and urine as well as on the bottle that the persons accompanying him had allegedly brought to Berlin.

On 5 September 2020, the National Medical Chamber of Russia invited German colleagues to create a joint expert group to establish the reasons for the deterioration in Navalny’s health (On 8 September 2020, the state-owned media holding Deutsche Welle reported that the Federal Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer) had rejected the proposal saying that only the patient’s relatives could initiate further medical examinations^[2]). On the same day, OPCW experts arrived in Germany and were briefed by the German side.

On 6 September 2020, German foreign minister Heiko Maas said in the above-mentioned interview with German media that "there are many indications" that the Russian state was behind the poisoning of Alexey Navalny and that the German Foreign Ministry was working to grant the first request submitted by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office on 27 August 2020. The OPCW experts visited the Charité hospital in Berlin to collect Navalny’s biological samples.

On 7 September 2020, a Bundeswehr representative said in an interview with Russia's Novaya Gazeta that the disclosure of any additional information about the results of the analysis of Navalny's samples was impossible for reasons of security and the interests of Germany. Leonid Roshal, President of the Russian National Medical Chamber, sent an open letter to the President of the German Medical Association with a proposal to create a joint commission to hold consultations and make an unbiased final determination as to Germany's claim concerning the alleged poisoning of Navalny.

On 8 September 2020, the G7 countries issued a statement claiming that international law had been violated in the territory of Russia because Navalny had been allegedly poisoned with a chemical nerve agent. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published a statement saying that "the number of cases of poisoning, or other forms of targeted assassination, of current or former Russian citizens, either within Russia itself or on foreign soil, over the past two decades is profoundly disturbing," and also that "Navalny was clearly someone who needed state protection."

On 9 September 2020, German Ambassador to Russia Géza Andreas von Geyr was summoned to the Foreign Ministry of Russia, where he received a severe reprimand in connection with the confrontational stand of the German government in the situation around Alexey Navalny. On the same day, a representative of the German Defence Ministry said in a press briefing that Germany had handed over Navalny’s test results to OPCW experts. German government deputy spokesperson Martina Fitz said Berlin saw no reasons to transfer data on Navalny directly to Moscow because Russia is a member of the OPCW and urged Russia to provide information on the "Navalny case."

On 11 September 2020, chairs of Parliamentary Friendship Groups Pavel Zavalny (State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation) and Robby Schlund (Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany) published a joint statement in which they called for a constructive and unbiased investigation into the incident without a priori linking it to Russian-German cooperation in the spheres of civil society, economy and culture. The OPCW sent the biomedical samples taken from Alexey Navalny in Berlin to two designated laboratories.

On 14 September 2020, the Federal Government issued a statement saying that OPCW accredited laboratories in France and Sweden had confirmed the conclusions by Bundeswehr medical specialists that Navalny was poisoned with a so-called Novichok class chemical agent. Allegedly it was the OPCW that had taken test samples from Navalny, although the OPCW Technical Secretariat had denied on several occasions that it had any official contacts with Germany on this case (members of the OPCW Technical Secretariat later admitted in a conversation with the members of the Russian Permanent Mission to the OPCW that they had to say this because of some confidentiality agreements they had with Germany).

The same day, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at a joint news conference with the Iraqi Foreign Minister held in Berlin that Russia should contact the OPCW for the documents on the Navalny case and thereby indicated that Berlin did not intend to provide Moscow with the test samples and the results of their analysis, which the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office requested on 27 August 2020.

On 14 September 2020, the Prosecutor General's Office sent the Federal Office of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany the second request for information about the methods used by the Charité hospital doctors to treat Navalny, also requesting that Russian Interior Ministry officials be admitted to him in order to question him as part of an inquiry into his alleged poisoning. The German side said they would comply with the request if Navalny gave his consent. (On 15 September 2020, the New York Times cited a source in the German special services as saying that Navalny opposed contacts with the Russian police and Russian-German joint investigation into the incident. According to the Federal Office of Justice of Germany, the second request for information was sent to the Office of Justice of Berlin only on 25 September 2020. No substantive response to the request has been received as of 26 April 2021.)

On 15 September 2020 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, acting upon instruction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had a telephone conversation with German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas. He stated to the German Foreign Minister that Moscow was still expecting that Berlin complied with the mentioned requests of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. It was emphasized that it was Germany’s obligation to do so under the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. Heiko Maas reiterated the position expressed earlier whereby Russia should contact the OPCW, not Berlin on the situation involving Navalny.

On 16 September 2020, the Russian Embassy in Germany sent a note to the Foreign Ministry of Germany requesting assistance in ensuring consular access to Navalny in accordance with the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. A response note from the German Foreign Ministry was received on 25 September 2020. In it, the German authorities stated that they would not prevent Russian diplomats from establishing contacts with Navalny, but would not assist them in doing so, either. Navalny was notified of the above request by the Russian Embassy, and it was up to him to decide whether he wanted to see Russian diplomats.

On 17 September 2020 the OPCW issued a press release saying that the OPCW Technical Secretariat had collected biomedical samples to be analyzed by the OPCW certified laboratories. The European Parliament adopted a resolution in connection with the situation related to Alexey Navalny. A video shot in Navalny's hotel room in Tomsk is published, showing his team listing and packing some items, including mineral water bottles.

On 23 September 2020, the Berlin Charité hospital issued a press release saying that Alexey Navalny had been discharged from hospital because his condition had improved. It was noted that German doctors believed he could make a "full recovery."

On the same day, Russia’s Permanent Mission to the OPCW sent a note to Germany’s Permanent Mission to the OPCW demanding that Berlin comply with its obligations arising from the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (CWC) as regards providing Russia with documents held by Germany related to the situation involving Navalny. At the same time, a letter was sent to OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias notifying him of the above note and requesting him to provide information about the nature of the technical assistance provided by Germany.

On 25 September 2020, members of the State Duma Commission on the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs headed by Deputy Vasily Piskaryov sent a letter to German Bundestag President Wolfgang Schaeuble with a proposal to establish joint Russian-German parliamentary control over the course of the investigation into the case of Alexey Navalny[3].

On 26 September 2020, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation sent the third request to the German Federal Office of Justice, dated 24 September 2020, asking that Russian investigators be allowed to conduct interviews with Navalny’s spouse Yuliya Navalnaya and with Maria Pevchikh who accompanied him during his trip to Tomsk. The German authorities were asked whether the German experts conducted a toxicity test on any items from the hotel where Alexey Navalny stayed. No substantial response has been received as of 26 April 2021.

On 27 September 2020, the German Magazine Der Spiegel, citing its own sources, reported that Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel secretly visited Alexey Navalny at the Charité hospital in Berlin when he was receiving in-patient treatment. The information was presented as a sign of the German Chancellor’s solidarity with the "Russian opposition politician" and a signal that Berlin would not sweep the alleged poisoning under the rug. Later, the information about the visit was confirmed by German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert and Alexey Navalny himself on social media.

On 28 September 2020, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation sent the fourth request for legal assistance to the German Federal Office of Justice asking for help in establishing the identity of a person behind an email address located on a German server, that was used to send an email containing information on the bombs planted in Omsk on the day Alexey Navalny was urgently hospitalized, as well as asking to confirm or refute information posted in public sources that traces of the so-called Novichok group of military-grade nerve agents were discovered on a bottle brought to Germany from Tomsk by the above mentioned Maria Pevchikh. No substantial response has been received as of 26 of April 2021.

On 1 October 2020, the German magazine Der Spiegel published an interview with Alexey Navalny, in which the blogger said the most likely version of what happened to him was an attempt on his life with a chemical warfare agent by the Russian special services on behalf of Russia’s top officials.

On the same day, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin conveyed a letter to Director-General of the OPCW Technical Secretariat Fernando Arias suggesting that he considered the possibility to send experts to Russia to cooperate with Russian experts in studying the results of Alexey Navalny’s tests to determine signs of a possible crime on the territory of the Russian Federation.

On 2 October 2020, the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the OPCW conveyed a note to Russia’s Permanent Mission to the OPCW stating that, according to Berlin, the bilateral Russian-German interaction on the situation around Alexey Navalny, which the Russian side insisted on, had allegedly taken place during the Russian Ambassador's meeting with the State Secretary of the German Foreign Office on 2 September 2020, and the German Ambassador’s meeting with the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia on 9 September 2020, and the telephone conversation between the Russian and German Foreign Ministers on 15 September 2020. This is not true. During all those contacts, two of which took place at Moscow’s insistence, the German side was asked to provide Navalny’s biological samples and the results of the tests on them, as requested by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. The German side deliberately avoided a substantive dialogue, using the above contacts solely to reiterate the same accusations, threats and ultimatums against Russia.

On 2 October 2020, a reply letter from Director-General of the OPCW Technical Secretariat Fernando Arias was received, in which he expressed the willingness of the OPCW to provide Russia with assistance and asked to specify the provision on the basis of which the Russian side requested assistance. Fernando Arias also stated that the OPCW TS was still waiting for the results of the tests on Navalny’s biological samples upon Germany’s request.

On 3 October 2020, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview with the German news website t-online.de that if the OPCW experts confirmed the conclusions of the special laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden about Navalny being poisoned with the so-called Novichok group of military-grade nerve agents, new EU sanctions against Russia would be "inevitable."

On 5 October 2020, Director-General of the OPCW Technical Secretariat Fernando Arias without our formal consent to disclose contacts regarding the possible sending of the OPCW experts to Russia, published a relevant press-release on the OPCW web-page.

On 6 October 2020, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin sent a letter to OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias, in which he notified him that the Russian side considered it possible to organize an expert meeting pursuant to Article VIII, Subpara. 38 (e) of the CWC and confirmed our consent to disclose the relevant correspondence in order to properly inform the states parties to the OPCW.

The OPCW Technical Secretariat circulated Note S/1906/2020 containing the summary of the Report on Activities Carried out in Support of a Request for Technical Assistance by Germany, which read that Alexey Navalny "was exposed to a toxic chemical acting as a cholinesterase inhibitor." The document also states that biomarkers of the cholinesterase inhibitor have similar structural characteristics to the toxic chemicals belonging to schedules 1.A.14 and 1.A.15 (the so-called "Novichoks") in the Annex on Chemicals to the Convention. Yet this cholinesterase inhibitor is not listed in the Annex.

A joint statement by 44 countries of the Western "camp" (NATO, EU, Australia, Columbia, Ecuador, Georgia, Japan, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, and Ukraine) was published on the sidelines of the 95^th session of the OPCW Executive Council (The Hague, 6-9 October 2020). It called on Russia to promptly investigate the use of chemical weapons from the "Novichok" group against Alexey Navalny and present its results to the 25^th session of the Conference of States Parties of the OPCW (The Hague, 30 November – 4 December 2020).

On 7 October 2020, the Foreign Ministers of Germany and France published a joint statement announcing the German-French initiative to impose sanctions against certain Russian "individuals deemed responsible for this crime based on their official function," as well as entities "involved in the Novichok programme."

On 8 October 2020, Chairman of the Commission on the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia's Internal Affairs of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vasiliy Piskarev discussed the Navalny case in a videoconference with Chair of the German-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Group of the German Bundestag Robby Schlund. The German parliamentarian indicated his intention to request the President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schauble to provide an official response to the inquiry of the Commission led by Vasiliy Piskarev of 25 September 2020.

On 9 October 2020, a joint statement by the CSTO member states at the 95^th session of the OPCW Executive Council was published (The Hague, 6-9 October 2020), emphasizing the importance of strict observance of the provisions of Paragraph 2 of Article VII of the Convention (legal assistance) and calling on the States Parties to abandon lofty politicized statements and to move towards real cooperation and consultations.

On 15 October 2020, the EU in the context of the "Navalny case" introduced sanctions against six Russian officials (Director of the FSB, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Executive Office, Head of the Presidential Domestic Policy Directorate, Presidential Envoy to the Siberian Federal District, and two Deputy Defence Ministers of the Russian Federation) as well as the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology.

There appeared mass media reports claiming that Alexey Navalny was convalescing at the resort town of Ibach in Germany's southern Black Forest national park.

On 16 October 2020, the OPCW Technical Secretariat circulated to OPCW country delegations a classified report on technical assistance provided by the Organization to Germany on the "Navalny case." At Berlin's insistence, all relevant information concerning the agent allegedly found by OPCW experts as well as German military experts in the blogger's biomaterials had been removed from the report. This was explained by "proliferation risks," lest the formula fall into the wrong hands. On 19 October 2020, the Russian Embassy to Germany sent a note to the German Foreign Ministry requesting the German side to disclose the full content of the OPCW. There was no response to the note. On 16 November 2020, the Embassy sent a follow-up note on the matter. It was only on 7 December 2020 that the German Foreign Ministry responded by a note refusing to satisfy the Russian request due to the said "proliferation risks" and indicating that, according to the German side, the information requested on the substance "was irrelevant to the investigation into Navalny's poisoning."

On 16 October 2020, the Foreign Ministers of Germany, France and Poland issued a joint statement containing yet another demand for Russia to investigate the "poisoning" of Alexey Navalny.

On 26 October 2020, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias sent a letter to Russian Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin, in which he shared his vision of the modalities of technical assistance requested by Russia. The letter specified, in particular, that the Russian side must guarantee the absence of media coverage, transfer to the OPCW the blogger's biomaterials for analysis at certified laboratories as well as all medical information on Alexey Navalny's treatment in Russia, ensure the opportunity for contacting Russian doctors who had provided medical aid to Navalny, as well as seek his own consent. 

On 30 October 2020, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation received a letter (dated 28 October 2020) from Germany's Federal Office of Justice referring to Russia's above-mentioned four inquiries concerning the Navalny case (dated 27 August and 14, 24 and 28 September 2020). In this letter, the German authorities – without answering any of the questions posed by our law enforcement agencies with regard to the Navalny situation – posed a number of counter-questions and reiterated that they would not make Navalny's biological samples or test results available to Russia without his consent and without Russia initiating a criminal case in connection with his poisoning as alleged by Germany. Essentially, the letter received by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office was perfunctory. The corresponding public comments were made by the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia, the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Ministry.

On 2 November 2020, the Navalny situation was discussed in detail by the Head of the State Duma Commission on Investigating Foreign States' Interference in Russia's Internal Affairs, Vasily Piskaryov, and the Chairman of the Bundestag German-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Group, Robby Schlund, during their meeting in Moscow.

On 3 November 2020, the Prosecutor General's Office replied to the Federal Office of Justice, covering in detail the above questions posed by the German authorities.

On 5 November 2020, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas held a telephone conversation at the initiative of Germany. The Russian minister once again conveyed Russia's concerns to the German Foreign Minister over the German authorities' conduct in the context of the "Navalny case."

On 6 November 2020, during a government press briefing in Berlin, German Federal Foreign Office Deputy Spokesperson Maria Adebahr said that Russia should initiate a criminal case in connection with Navalny's poisoning as alleged by Germany as a prerequisite for Germany to consider the transfer of Alexey Navalny's personal data (apparently, including his biomaterials) to Russia. This, however, did not guarantee a positive decision on transferring the data.

On 11 November 2020, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, delivered a letter to OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias, in which he expressed his bafflement over the arbitrary interpretation of Russia's proposals on technical assistance modalities and highlighted that the technical assistance parameters are determined by the requesting party.

On 12 November 2020, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in his interview to the Russian media that Moscow would retaliate to the sanctions imposed by the EU in the context of the Navalny situation. On 13 November 2020, during a weekly news conference, German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said that Berlin had taken note of the Russian foreign minister's remarks. According to him, Moscow's retaliation to the sanctions was "unjustified and inappropriate," it disregarded international interest in this case being cleared up and took "a Russian problem" into bilateral relations with Germany and France.

On 18 November 2020, the OPCW Director-General, Fernando Arias, sent a letter to Russia's Permanent Mission to the OPCW in which, among other things, he confirmed that the German government had not authorized the OPCW Technical Secretariat to provide Russia with the full version of its report on technical assistance to Berlin. Germany purportedly suggested that the OPCW Technical Secretariat should refer to a short version of the document released on 16 October 2020, when communicating with Russia. Mr. Arias also emphasized that the OPCW Technical Secretariat was expecting Russia's response to the considerations outlined in his letter of 26 October 2020.

On 25 November 2020, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin delivered a letter to OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias, in which he stated that the OPCW TS was seeking to politicize the requirements for the provision of technical assistance to Russia under Clause 38 (e) of Article VIII of the CWC and that the Technical Secretariat's position appeared to be aimed at obstructing this mission. Russia's permanent representative also pointed out that, in accordance with Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the investigative body has the authority to carry out necessary procedural actions, including without Alexey Navalny's consent.

On 27 November 2020, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias sent a letter to Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin, in which he reiterated that the OPCW TS was expecting a response from Russia to the considerations outlined in the Director-General's letters of 26 October and 18 November.

On 27 November 2020, during the German government's weekly press conference, the Federal Ministry of Justice Spokesperson, Maximillian Kall, said that no decision had been taken on the four requests for legal assistance (submitted by Russia) and they were still under consideration.

On 30 November 2020, in her video address to the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) at the close of Germany's European Council chairmanship, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked the MPs for the EU's unanimous response to Navalny's "poisoning by Novichok" (she said, "it turned out very well").

On December 4, 2020, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin delivers a letter to OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias, in which he states that the OPCW top officials had not provided an intelligible answer on the modalities of the visit by the organization's experts to Russia.

On December 9, 2020, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias sends a letter to Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin, in which he once again states that for the visit of the organization's experts to take place it is necessary to conclude a memorandum of understanding and obtain Navalny's consent to work with his medical records and biological samples. He also states that it was impossible to conduct a joint analysis of biological samples at a lab operated by the Russian Federal Medical Biological Agency.

On December 16, 2020, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin delivers a letter to OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias, in which he comments on the OPCW Technical Secretariat’s demands.

On December 21, 2020, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias sends a letter to Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin, in which he states that in preparation for a visit to Russia, the OPCW TS adheres to the same requirements and procedures that were used when organizing similar visits at the request of other CWC member states, including Germany.

On the same day, a faction of the German party, Alternative for Germany (Ad), submits a deputy inquiry on the "Navalny case" to the German government. (The response was provided on February 15, 2021, see below.)

On December 28, 2020, the Federal Penitentiary Service accuses Navalny of evading the criminal executive inspection’s control, and issues a warning to the effect that failure to comply with the court rulings may lead to replacing his suspended sentence with a prison term. (On January 23, 2020, German magazine Focus reports in an article on its webpage that on December 28, 2020, Alexey Navalny, despite objections from his personal guards, left the Stuttgart Airport for the Canary Islands for an 8-day vacation).

On January 11, 2021, the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia files a motion at the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow requesting that Alexey Navalny’s suspended sentence in the case of fraud against Yves Rocher is replaced with a prison term.

On 13 January 2021, the Federal Office of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany sends a letter to the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, which the German authorities pass off as an official response to Russia’s requests for legal assistance in the "Navalny case" dated August 27 and September 14, 24 and 28, 2020. The minutes, in the German language, of interviews with the blogger and his spouse Yuliya conducted by German law enforcement officers in accordance with the above requests of the General Prosecutor's Office are attached to the letter. The letters repeat the messages previously voiced by the Germans and reiterate the German authorities’ unwillingness to provide the Russian investigative authorities with any material evidence of the blogger’s poisoning by "Novichok" (including three mineral water bottles with alleged traces of poison on two of them), and including copies of the toxicology test findings, Navalny’s biological tests and test results. As before, the Germans were basing their decision on Navalny being unwilling to share his personal data and on references to the German law and the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 1959.

On January 17, 2021, Navalny arrives at Moscow from Berlin and is detained by law enforcement officers at Sheremetyevo airport.

On January 18, 2021, during a government news conference, Spokesperson Steffen Seibert says that the German government condemns Navalny’s arrest and calls for his immediate release. Similar statements are made by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, Vice-Chancellor and Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, and Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

On January 21, 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office, in response to a letter from the Federal Office of Justice dated January 13, 2021, sends another letter with a request that the German authorities act in full upon the 17 requested procedural actions and respond in substance to the questions posed by the Russian investigation in the context of the "Navalny case." (The response was received on February 11, 2021, see below.)

Letter by Vitaly Kozak

On January 22, 2021, Switzerland-based Russian neurologist Vitaly Kozak writes an open letter to Sergey Lavrov, in which he points to contradictions and inconsistencies in the article published on December 22, 2020, in the British medical journal Lancet on Navalny’s diagnosis and treatment in the Berlin hospital Charité. On February 8, 2021, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to media questions regarding Vitaly Kozak’s letter are published detailing the Russian position on the "Navalny case". Following the instructions, the Russian Ambassador to Switzerland contacts Vitaly Kozak and extends his gratitude for his active citizenship. On February 15, 2021, the Russian Ambassador to Germany, following the instructions, conveys a message from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to German Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas regarding Kozak’s letter calling on the German side to provide a substantive response to the observations and conclusions made by the medical professional. On February 23, 2021, the German Foreign Ministry responds to the message in question by informing the Russian Embassy to Germany that it has no intention of giving any comments on Kozak’s letter due to having no expertise in chemistry or medicine.

On February 19, 2021, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin conveys a message from Sergey Lavrov to OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias, with a request for comments on the considerations set out in the open letter by Vitaly Kozak. The response was received on March 3, 2021.

On 2 February 2021, Simonovsky District Court of Moscow held an extramural session at the building of the Moscow City Court where it considered a motion by the Moscow Division of Federal Penitentiary Service to impose Alexey Navalny's suspended sentence for fraud against Yves Rocher. The Russian media reported that a group of Western diplomats who arrived as observers to the courthouse included Alina Christina Falzon, Second Secretary of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Russian Federation.

On 2 February 2021, following Alexey Navalny’s conviction, German government's spokesperson Steffen Seibert published a post on social networking service Twitter quoting comments by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel: "The verdict against Alexey Navalny is far from any rule of law standards. Navalny must be released at once. Violence against peaceful demonstrators must stop." Heiko Maas, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, also shared the same comment on Twitter.

On 3 February 2021, during a press conference, Steffen Seibert, the spokesperson of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, stated that EU countries are planning to discuss imposing new sanctions against Russia because of the Russian court decision to impose Alexey Navalny's suspended sentence for the Yves Rocher case. The Government representative recalled the restrictions which had been imposed earlier in October 2020, including against Russian citizens, over poisoning of the blogger: "The sanctions were imposed because those individuals' responsibility for violating the CWC. Our demand that Russia investigate the crime (attempted murder) committed against Navalny and the violation of the CWC, is still unfulfilled."

On 5 February 2021, Victor Richter, Counselor and Head of the Political Department of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Moscow, was declared persona non grata due to his participation (documented by the Russian Federal Security Service) in illegal rallies that took place in Moscow on 23 January 2021 and were organized by Alexey Navalny's associates. On 8 April 2021, the German side retaliated by expelling a senior diplomat of the Russian Embassy in Germany.

On 11 February 2021, the Federal Office of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany responded via a letter to the above-mentioned request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation of 21 January 2021 and effectively refused yet again to agree to the substantive elements of Russia's requests regarding Alexey Navalny's case. The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation issued a press release in which it commented on yet another empty response from the German counterparts and urged them to reconsider their unconstructive approaches to cooperation in the context of the situation around the Russian blogger.

On 15 February 2021, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany replied to the above-mentioned inquiry by the Alternative for Germany fraction at the Bundestag of 21 December 2020 regarding Alexey Navalny's case. German authorities refused to disclose information on most of the key issues citing the need to protect state secrets.^[4]

On 20 February 2021, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation replied to the letter of the Federal Office of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany of 11 February 2021, calling on the German counterparties to reconsider their unconstructive position.

On 22 February 2021, following the meeting of the EU foreign ministers, it was announced that the new set of anti-Russian personal sanctions over the "Navalny case" was agreed on by the EU (introduced on 2 March 2021). Prior to that, a similar step was announced by Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.

On 25 February 2021, Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier said during an online meeting of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations that Germany and the European Union cannot turn a blind eye to the "cynical and illegitimate" arrest of Alexey Navalny that "came following an attempt to have him poisoned in his home country", calling for Navalny’s immediate release. According to Steinmeier, Russia is violating its international and national human rights obligations. He said that their fulfilment would be the yardstick for Germany's stance towards Russia in the future.

On 2 March 2021, on Berlin's initiative, the Council of the European Union imposed personal sanctions against Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Igor Krasnov, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Alexander Kalashnikov, Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation, and Viktor Zolotov, Director of the Federal Service of National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation and Commander of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation. Brussels accused these senior Russian officials of involvement in the "arbitrary" prosecution, arrest and conviction of Navalny, as well as "other human rights violations in Russia".

On 4 March 2021, Russian-German political consultations at the level of first deputy foreign ministers of the two countries were held in Moscow. In the course of the conversation, German counterparties frankly evaded an in-depth discussion of Russian claims to the German authorities regarding the Navalny case, explicitly stating that the German side "does not see much point in it".

On 19 March 2021, the German Federal Office of Justice replied by a letter to the above-mentioned letter dated 20 February 2021 from the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, in which it merely reiterated the earlier unconstructive position taken by the German side on the Navalny case.

On 26 March 2021, Andrea Sasse, German Deputy Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, during a government press conference, raised the issue of the "rapidly deteriorating" state of health of Alexey Navalny, who was serving his criminal sentence in one of the penitentiaries in the Vladimir region^[5]. The Vice-Speaker of the German Foreign Ministry stressed that the German government was aware and "extremely concerned" about the situation around Navalny. She emphasized that Berlin had consistently advocated the release of the blogger and planned to adhere to this position in the future, and also raised this issue in its contacts with Russia. The authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany left the question from the press about "additional measures and steps" without comments.

On 26 March 2021, Nabila Massrali, Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs of the EU, posted a message on Twitter calling on the Russian authorities to give Navalny access to medical care, as well as for his "immediate and unconditional release and a full investigation into poisoning".

On 30 March 2021, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of France Emmanuel Macron brought up the issue of Navalny's health status during the trilateral video conference with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

On 7 April 2021, a representative of the German Foreign Ministry stated to the German media that reports about Alexey Navalny's deteriorating health were "of concern" to the German authorities, and the German side demanded the immediate release of the blogger.

On 8 April 2021, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel again raised the issue of Navalny's health condition during a bilateral phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On 13 April 2021, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, during a press conference, proposed to the Minister of Defense of Germany Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to clarify the situation around Alexey Navalny in response to her statement about her willingness to receive information about the movement of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine (published on 11 April 2021 on Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's Twitter account).

On 15 April 2021, the Department of Information and Press of the Russian MFA issued a press release with an assessment of the actions by German authorities in the context of the Navalny case, stating that Berlin had continued to systematically use the blogger in order to interfere in internal affairs of Russia, publicly exploiting allegations against the Russian penitentiary system which he and his entourage had replicated.

On 18 April 2021, the United States National Security Advisor to President Jake Sullivan stated that the Government of the Russian Federation "will be held accountable by the international community" in the event of the possible death of Alexey Navalny. On 19 April 2021, Ulrike Demmer, German Deputy Government Spokesperson, said at a government press conference that Berlin had "taken note" of Sullivan's statement, but would not comment on it in any way at the moment.

On 18 April 2021, Heiko Maas, German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview to the German tabloid Bild that Berlin was deeply concerned about the deteriorating health of "opposition activist Alexei Navalny" and called on the Russian government to respect his right to medical care and to immediately grant him access to doctors "he trusts".

On 18 April 2021, the European External Action Service published a statement by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on behalf of the European Union with an appeal to grant Alexey Navalny access to medical professionals "he trusts".

The European Union foreign ministers discussed Alexey Navalny's health condition at a meeting on 19 April 2021. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a press-release indicating that the Russian authorities received Navalny's request of 20 January 2021 concerning his detention conditions in a correctional facility which led to another decision issued by the ECHR on February 16 2021, on interim measures in favour of the blogger (until his release). The ECHR posed a number of questions to the Russian authorities to be answered by 12 July 2021.

The same day, the medical unit №33 of FSIN of Russia decided to transfer Alexey Navalny from Pokrov correctional facility №2 to the prison hospital located on the grounds of Correctional Facility №3 in the Vladimir region, UFSIN of Russia.

On 20 April 2021, in a video address at the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel said that Berlin is 'extremely worried' about Alexey Navalny's health and his future and is trying to press the Russian authorities for him.   The head of the German government stressed that anti-Russia sanctions imposed by the EU in the context of Navalny's case, illegal annexation of the Crimea and Russia's participation in the Donbass conflict demonstrate the unity of Europe with regard to Russia's authorities.

On 20 April 2021, the President's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told the Russian media that the Kremlin would no longer comment on the situation with Alexey Navalny:  "We can no longer comment on this situation, this citizen, this convict. We are not going to do so, because we have no information, we do not receive it, all questions, if there are any complaints or doubts regarding legitimacy, should be addressed to FSIN.  You can also address to the prosecutor's office responsible for law enforcement, including within FSIN." 

On 20 April 2021, 71 MEPs sent to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin a collective letter of protest against non-admission of qualified medical practitioners to Alexey Navalny in the correctional facility.  The statement stresses that if the blogger dies in prison or if detention conditions damage his health, the head of the Russian state will be held responsible for this.

On 21 April 2021, Tatiana Moskalkova, High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, told the media that on 20 April 2020, four civilian doctors outside the system of FSIN of Russia visited Alexey Navalny and concluded that the blogger received all the necessary treatment and that there were no serious concerns about his health at the time of that examination. 

The same day, State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany Miguel Berger took the initiative and contacted the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Federal Republic of Germany urging to ensure access of independent medical practitioners to Alexey Navalny. He also suggested examining the blogger by German professor K. Anheupl who is well acquainted with Angela Merkel.  Miguel Berger asked to bring this information to the competent Russian authorities.

On 21 April 2021, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Federal Republic of Germany sent to the Federal Foreign Office of Germany a note demanding to provide information on the formula of the chemical substance allegedly found by designated laboratories of the German Armed Forces in Navalny's biomaterials. 

On 21 April 2021, the day of unsanctioned demonstrations throughout Russia held by Navalny's supporters, two cyclists approached the Russian Consulate General in Hamburg at 5 p.m. local time and threw smoke grenades at the Russian diplomatic premises. The police failed to catch the intruders shortly after an attack.  Forensic specialists examined the site. Nobody among the employees of the Consulate General and their families were injured in the incident. The building was not damaged.

On 22 April 2021, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Federative Republic of Germany sent to the Federal Foreign Office of Germany a note in connection with continuing accusations by German authorities against Russia on the "Navalny case" demanding once again the German side to provide the formula of the chemical substance allegedly found by German military in blogger's biological materials.  

On 23 April 2021, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Moscow Géza Andreas von Geyr sent letters to Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov and Director of FSIN of Russia Aleksandr Kalashnikov where, on behalf of German Government, the head of the German diplomatic mission suggested sending a group of German doctors to Russia to examine Alexey Navalny or assisting in medical evacuation of the blogger to hospital in Germany or in a third State. 

The same day, Alexey Navalny ended his hunger strike started on 31 March 2021, as he said via social networks explaining his decision by strong recommendations of civilian doctors.

On 30 April 2021, in response to personal sanctions against Russian citizens introduced by the EU on 2 and 22 March 2021, the MFA of Russia announced the inclusion of 8 nationals of EU Member States in Russia sanctions list, including several representatives of official EU agencies and the Head of Berlin’s Prosecutor’s Office Jorg Raupach (this agency responds to the requests of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation on the "Navalny case").

On 11 May 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation sent another official request (the eighth one) to the Federal Ministry of Justice of Germany on the "Navalny case".

On 19 May 2021, the Russian Embassy in Germany sent a note to the German Foreign Ministry referring to a letter by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation to the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection of 11 May 2021, once again urging the German side to comply with Russian requests concerning the Navalny case.

On 25 May 2021, the Russian MFA sent a note to the German Embassy in Moscow in response to the abovementioned (p. 30) letters by the German Ambassador in Moscow Géza Andreas von Geyr to Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov and Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia Aleksandr Kalashnikov. The Russian side gave a detailed and reasoned response to the requests by the German Ambassador and urged German counterparts to provide a substantive answer to the letter by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation of 11 May 2021.

That same day, the German Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Russian Embassy in Germany in response to the note of the Russian Embassy of 22 April 2021 (p. 30), referring to previous failures by the German side to fulfill Russia’s requirements in the context of the Navalny case.

On 23 June 2021, during the weekly press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Russian side does not see the point of continuing its dialogue with the German authorities on any aspects of the Navalny case until they fulfill the obligations of the Federal Republic of Germany in international law enforcement cooperation and the provision of all data and physical evidence requested by the Russian side.

On 6 July 2021, in his address to the 97^th session of OPCW Executive Council, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Aleksandr Shulgin noted that the information contained in draft report of the OPCW on the implementation of the CWC in 2020 de facto confirms that the Navalny incident is the result of a well-planned provocation from abroad. For example, it was stated in paragraph 1.41 of the draft that the OPCW TS had dispatched a team of experts to provide technical assistance to Germany on 20 August 2020, on the same day when the blogger was hospitalized in Omsk. The representatives of Germany were quick to explain this so-called discrepancy as a technical error.

On 19 July 2021, Chairman of the Commission of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs Vasily Piskarev sent letters to President of the Bundestag of Germany Wolfgang Schäuble, and Director-General of the OPCW TS Fernando Arias pointing out the so-called discrepancies in the draft OPCW report. The head of the German Parliament was urged to encourage German law enforcement authorities to engage in constructive cooperation with their Russian colleagues on the Navalny case.

On 22 July 2021, during the weekly press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called for a careful examination of newly discovered facts in the Navalny case.

On 2 August 2021, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW Aleksandr Shulgin received a letter from Director-General of the OPCW TS Fernando Arias, informing him of the request of the German side to declassify the request by Permanent Representative of Germany to the OPCW Gudrun Lingner of technical assistance from the OPCW and the accompanying note No. 26/2020 of 4 September 2020 and publish them. These documents indicate that the German inquiry on the Navalny case was sent to the OPCW TS on 4 September 2020 (and not 20 August 2020).

On 2 August 2021, the Russian Embassy in Berlin sent the German MFA a note asking the German side to provide video footage taken when OPCW TS experts were collecting biological samples from Alexey Navalny at Berlin’s Charité hospital, and later when they were divided and sealed in the OPCW laboratory in The Hague.

On 17 August 2021, a parliamentary group of the Alternative for Germany (Ad) German political party sent a second deputy inquiry to the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (the response came on 21 September 2021 - see below).

On 19 August 2021, the German Foreign Ministry sent a note in response to the abovementioned note of the Russian Embassy in Berlin of 2 August 2021, indicating that the German side has no such video footage.

On 20 August 2021, in a press conference following her meeting with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel stated that Germany will continue to keep close track of the fate of Alexey Navalny and urges for the immediate release of the blogger and the investigation of his alleged poisoning.

On 3 September 2021, Russian group of civil activists National Interests Protection Committee posted on the telegra.ph platform an investigation containing the names and dates of birth of 30 locally employed staff members (Russian citizens) of foreign embassies in Russia who donated money for the activities of Alexey Navalny’s organizations that are now banned. The majority - 15 people - are employees of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

On 4 September 2021, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the post on social media, suggesting that journalists and civil activists should find out whether the newly discovered facts indicate the existence of a hidden scheme of funding Alexey Navalny's organizations by foreign embassies.

On 6 September 2021, during a weekly government press conference in Berlin, deputy German Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Andrea Sasse stated that accusations of the financial support of Alexey Navalny against Germany are absurd, and the publication of names and dates of birth of locally employed staff members of the German Embassy in Moscow violates the law that guarantees the protection of citizens’ personal data.

On 21 September 2021, the German Government responded to the inquiry of the parliamentary group of the Alternative for Germany party to the German Bundestag of 17 August 2021 on the Navalny case.^[6]

30 September 2021