Kamis, 03 September 2020

As Putin's rival fights for life after novichok attack, new book asks why West won't confront Russia - Daily Mail

The poisonous gangster in the Kremlin: As Vladimir Putin's chief rival fights for life after a novichok attack, a new book by a man who's lost three close friends to assassins asks why the West won't confront Russia

  • Opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned with novichok on Wednesday
  • Novichok kills within hours and was used in the 2018 Salisbury poisonings 
  • Without sophisticated analysis, the cause of death is impossible to determine 

Not content with sentencing his political opponents to death, Josef Stalin inflicted a particularly cruel end on those awaiting execution in Lubyanka, the notorious Moscow jail run by his secret police, the NKVD — the forerunner of the KGB and FSB.

In a neighbouring building there was a special cell where condemned men and women became guinea pigs in experiments designed to find the ultimate weapon for the state's assassins — a poison which left no trace in the body.

Given food and drink laced with deadly toxins, they died in such agony that their torturers had to buy a radio set to drown out their victims' cries.

Fast forward to the present day and it seems that Western governments have their own radio sets turned up to full volume, in ignoring the murders commissioned by Vladimir Putin in the 20 or so years he has been in power — many drawing on knowledge gained from those twisted early experiments of Lenin's era.

Western governments have their own radio sets turned up to full volume, in ignoring the murders commissioned by Vladimir Putin (pictured) in the 20 or so years he has been in power

Western governments have their own radio sets turned up to full volume, in ignoring the murders commissioned by Vladimir Putin (pictured) in the 20 or so years he has been in power

On Wednesday it was reported that the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent.

Navalny has been fighting for his life in a Berlin hospital, after falling ill on a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk last month. 

Footage taken on the plane showed him screaming in agony before falling unconscious. 

But even before the poisoning was confirmed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, I had no doubt Navalny had fallen foul of Putin.

As a Russian historian who has written several books critical of the president's regime, I have worked with three authors later killed by Putin's henchmen.

His aims in taking out such opponents are non-ideological. 

Unlike the hard-line Communists who preceded them, all Putin and his cronies want is monopoly control over Russia's resources, finances, and economy, for their personal gain.

Today, Putin is one of the world's biggest oil-and-gas and financial magnates — but he is also an ex-KGB soldier who takes pride in giving orders to kill anyone who gets in his way — and the West appears powerless to stop him.

The problem is partly that Western leaders are far from united in their condemnation of these murders. 

On Wednesday it was reported that the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny (pictured), was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent

On Wednesday it was reported that the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny (pictured), was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent

Meanwhile, the rise of nationalism in Europe — actively encouraged by Putin — means Right-wing governments in countries such as Hungary and Czech Republic won't risk alienating this most important of allies.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has at least joined Merkel in her demand for Russia to explain itself over the Navalny poisoning.

Although he has pledged to aid international efforts to 'ensure justice is done', the difficulty will be in finding evidence because, as Putin is fully aware, poisoning is the most difficult of crimes to prove.

For this reason, it was long a favoured weapon of the much-feared Cheka, the secret police force set up in 1917 to root out anti-revolutionary elements in Soviet Russia.

Since Lenin was the first to make use of the Cheka and its talent for assassinations to establish himself as an undisputed leader, it is ironic that his own death in 1924 was likely the result of his meals being poisoned by a cook acting on the orders of his rival, Stalin.

In 1939, Lenin's widow would also be murdered by Stalin, who had a poisoned cake sent to her on her 70th birthday.

Whatever toxins were used to kill the Lenins, they were almost certainly developed in Laboratory-X, the special poisons facility that used those condemned prisoners as its experimental subjects, and still exists today.

Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal Putin critic, was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006 — Putin's 54th birthday

Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal Putin critic, was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006 — Putin's 54th birthday

Perhaps its deadliest success came in 1957 with the first criminal use of a radioactive poison — the thallium slipped into the coffee drunk by KGB deserter Nikolai Khokhlov at a conference in Frankfurt.

This agent kills slowly and irreversibly from within, and is all the more dangerous because the early symptoms can be confused with flu or pneumonia.

Khokhlov's life may have been saved because he rushed off to a meeting before he had finished his drink, but he suffered many terrifying symptoms including red and brown stripes developing all over his body, a sticky liquid oozing from his eyes, and clumps of hair falling out at the slightest touch.

Other murderous innovations in the 1950s included the use of a specially designed tube to shoot cyanide capsules into the faces of intended targets.

This was used successfully against two Ukrainian dissidents who dropped dead on the spot.

By the 1970s, specially adapted umbrellas were being used to inject tiny capsules into victims, each sealed with two wax plugs which melted at body temperature to release toxins. 

The substance novichok, was deployed in the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, in the attempted murder of ex-Soviet spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia (pictured)

The substance novichok, was deployed in the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, in the attempted murder of ex-Soviet spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia (pictured)

In 1978, this technique was famously used to kill 49-year-old Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov on London's Waterloo Bridge.

Nearly two decades on in Moscow, the delivery method had changed again. 

In 1995, both Ivan Kivelidi, a prominent Russian businessman and reform politician, and his secretary, Zara Ismailova, succumbed to a poison slipped into his mobile phone's receiver.

The substance used was novichok, the military-grade nerve agent deployed in the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, in the attempted murder of ex-Soviet spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

Novichok penetrates the body through pores in the skin or respiratory pathways, killing within hours. 

Without extremely sophisticated analysis, the cause of death is impossible to determine.

These details were released when Ivan Kivelidi's deputy, Vladimir Khutsishvili, was later framed for the murders, even though the state prosecutor failed to explain how a man with no previous connection to poisons had obtained a nerve agent made only in a secret state laboratory.

The only people with access to such a chemical, and the expertise to handle it, were, of course, the Russian secret services.

In 2004, they made a failed bid to assassinate Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal Putin critic with whom I was about to write a book questioning his government's handling of the siege of a Moscow theatre by Chechen terrorists in 2002.

She was finally gunned down in her Moscow apartment building two years later, and it was no coincidence that the date was October 7, 2006 — Putin's 54th birthday. 

She was murdered as a perverse gift to mark the occasion.

That same month, a memorial service was held for Anna in London — and that was the last time I saw my friend Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant-colonel in the FSB, the successor to the KGB.

I had helped him escape to a new life in the West after we collaborated on a book investigating how the FSB had secretly bombed several apartment buildings in Moscow in September 1999, killing more than 300 innocent Russians and pinning the blame on Chechen terrorists.

This had been used as a pretext for Putin, then Prime Minister, to invade Chechnya, building the reputation as a strong-man which helped him win the presidential election in March 2000.

Dawn Sturgess collapsed after being exposed to an 'unknown substance'. Novichok penetrates the body through pores in the skin or respiratory pathways, killing within hours

Dawn Sturgess collapsed after being exposed to an 'unknown substance'. Novichok penetrates the body through pores in the skin or respiratory pathways, killing within hours

The book, Blowing Up Russia, was promptly banned and copies were confiscated by Putin, a first in Russia since the outlawing of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's work, Gulag Archipelago in the 1970s.

Three months before Anna Politkovskaya's assassination, Putin had the Russian parliament pass a law — unique in the world — allowing the secret services to kill abroad with his permission. 

Despite this, Alexander, who had taken British citizenship, seemed confident that he was safe.

'Now they won't dare to touch me,' he told me at Anna's memorial service. 'No one would try to kill a British citizen.'

But within a month, he was dead, poisoned with radioactive Polonium-210 that was slipped into his green tea at a meeting in the bar of a Mayfair hotel.

The following year, I was working on a book about the wide-scale corruption and merciless oppression which followed Putin's accession to power when the FSB raided the Moscow flat of my co-author Vladimir Pribylovsky. 

They took away his computer and files, which included a first draft of the book.

Fortunately, I had my own copy of our manuscript in America, my home since 1978. 

We published the book in 2008. 

Vladimir died suddenly in 2016 while on his own in his apartment. He was 59.

Nikolai Glushkov was found dead with strangulation marks, following an earlier suspected attempt to murder him with poisoned champagne in a Bristol hotel

Nikolai Glushkov was found dead with strangulation marks, following an earlier suspected attempt to murder him with poisoned champagne in a Bristol hotel

The cause of his unexpected death was apparently a cardiac arrest, but this did nothing to allay suspicion, given that the FSB's poisons of choice include fluoroacetates, which have no taste, colour or odour when dissolved in water, and mimic the effects of common causes of death such as heart attacks or strokes.

Such poisons may also have been deployed by Putin's agents in the UK which, since many rich Russian exiles preferred Britain over other parts of the world, became a main stage for his assassinations.

Alexander Litvinenko's death was followed by that of 52-year-old oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili, who was found dead at his mansion in Surrey in 2008.

He had apparently suffered a heart attack but there were suspicions of an assassination given his close links to Litvinenko's long-time sponsor Boris Berezovsky, who was once the most powerful man in Russia after Boris Yeltsin, the nation's first president.

Berezovsky eventually hanged himself with his favourite scarf, suspended from a shower rail at his home in Ascot, Berkshire.

Then 67, Berezovsky was also an author I had worked with as an editor. 

He was an egocentric and extremely tough individual who had been Boris Yeltsin's number two and seemed to me most unlikely to have taken his own life.

There was also Nikolai Glushkov, who was in charge of Aeroflot, owned by Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili.

He emigrated to London in 2010 and eight years later would be found dead with strangulation marks, following an earlier suspected attempt to murder him with poisoned champagne in a Bristol hotel.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant-colonel in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, was poisoned with radioactive Polonium-210 that was slipped into his green tea

Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant-colonel in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, was poisoned with radioactive Polonium-210 that was slipped into his green tea

Other strange ends included that of Scottish property developer Scot Young, a Berezovsky associate who was impaled on railings after a fall in 2014; and Dr Matthew Puncher, the scientist who first linked Litvinenko's assassination to Polonium-210 and supposedly hacked himself to death with two different kitchen knives in 2016.

Over the decade, the list of the untimely deaths of Russians and Britons who worked for them in the UK mushroomed, and the Salisbury novichok poisonings in March 2018 further demonstrated that Putin has ceased to see a distinction between taking someone out in Britain, or in, say, a war zone such as Syria.

Masterminded by the GRU, the military equivalent of the FSB, they were notable both for the carelessness with which evidence was left near the scene, and the complete disregard for collateral damage to innocent bystanders.

This includes the lasting effects on Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was taken into intensive care after being contaminated on a visit to the Skripals' home; and the death of Dawn Sturgess who handled the perfume bottle that had contained the novichok, so casually discarded by the two Russian operatives concerned.

It was an audacious demonstration of just how far things have come. The Kremlin no longer cares what the West thinks, and neither will it care in the case of Alexei Navalny, regardless of whether he lives or dies.

All of this brings us to the question of what, if anything, can be done to stop Putin's killing spree — and here we need to understand that, while he has money and power in abundance, what he really craves is respect.

In the 1970s, specially adapted umbrellas were being used to inject tiny capsules into victims, and this technique was used to kill Georgi Markov on London's Waterloo Bridge

In the 1970s, specially adapted umbrellas were being used to inject tiny capsules into victims, and this technique was used to kill Georgi Markov on London's Waterloo Bridge

When Russia was kicked out of the G8 group of powerful nations following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, he found it a genuinely painful blow, and Western governments need to keep up the momentum — no longer talking to him or inviting him to international gatherings. It's the only thing that will make an impression.

Whether that will happen remains doubtful. There are too many vested interests at stake, not least in the U.S., where, according to evidence provided by a CIA sleeper in the Kremlin, the campaign to get Donald Trump elected was allegedly personally directed by Putin.

Putin is blackmailing the world with his talk of a limited nuclear war, and if the West shows weakness — as it did when Russia invaded Georgia and Crimea — he won't hesitate to act again.

Today, the attempted murder of Alexei Navalny, tomorrow the slaughter of hundreds of thousands in the Ukraine, Belarus or the Baltic States.

It's all the same to Putin.

With his disregard for human life and international law, he will continue to run riot until the West finally decides to act; and by then, I fear, the genie will be well and truly out of the bottle.

An EDITED extract from The Age Of Assassins by Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky, to be published on September 11 by Gibson Square at £14.99. Available from Mailbookshop.co.uk. © 2020 Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky.

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2020-09-03 21:05:08Z
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Beirut explosion: Rescuers investigate ‘heartbeat in the rubble’ - BBC News

Related Topics
  • Beirut port explosion

Rescuers in Beirut have been searching through the rubble of a building amid reports a person could be alive - nearly one month after a powerful blast devastated the Lebanese capital.

Specialist sensor equipment was to the Mar Mikhael area following unconfirmed reports that a heartbeat was detected.

Teams have now halted the search until the morning.

More than 200 people died when 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in a port warehouse detonated on 4 August.

Some 300,000 people were left homeless.

  • How long can survivors last under rubble?

There has been outrage that so much hazardous material was stored unsafely in the port.

The Lebanese government's resignation shortly afterwards failed to pacify protesters, who clashed with police in the city for several nights.

In a separate development, four containers with 4.3 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were found on Thursday outside Beirut's seaport, the army said.

It said its specialists examined the containers, but gave no further details.

Onlookers

What's the latest from the scene?

A crowd gathered at the building earlier today as the rescue team from Chile got to work. It is still unknown if a person is alive under the rubble.

Rescue teams have now called off the search for the night as they do not have cranes to lift the rubble and there are fears the building could collapse. They will continue in the morning.

Some people at the scene reportedly vowed to find a crane and keep going themselves through the night.

The rescuers were passing the building on Wednesday night when their dog gave a sign there was a person alive inside.

On returning this morning the dog went to the same place and gave the same sign. The group then used a scanner to search for a heartbeat or a breath from within, and came with equipment to dig down into the rubble.

Onlookers
The rescuers split into teams of seven to move the debris piece by piece, due to the risk of further damage. Every so often there were calls for silence so the rescue team could listen intently, the BBC's Orla Guerin reported from the scene.

Red Cross staff have set up a tent with floodlights and supplies. Army, fire service and volunteer rescuers are also on the scene.

1px transparent line

The Chilean rescuers arrived in Lebanon on 1 September. According to a local source, they have highly sensitive equipment which can detect breathing at a depth of 15m (49ft).

As of now there is no confirmation that anyone is alive under the rubble - but some of those gathered at the scene dared to hope, our correspondent said.

Al-Jazeera's correspondent Zeina Khodr tweeted that "search teams say they detected a body and what could be a person with a heartbeat under the rubble".

Mar Mikhael was one of the areas worst hit by the blast wave.

It is a historic neighbourhood that faces the port. It was famous for its night life before the disaster.

line

More on the explosion in Beirut

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2020-09-03 20:59:00Z
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Beirut: 'Signs of life' detected under rubble one month after explosion - Sky News

Possible signs of life have been detected by Beirut rescue workers in the rubble of a building that collapsed after a huge explosion a month ago, a rescue worker said.

A team with a rescue dog detected movement under a destroyed building in the Gemmayze area of the Lebanese capital, one of the worst hit by the blast, a local news agency said.

"These (signs of breathing and pulse) along with the temperature sensor means there is a possibility of life," rescue worker Eddy Bitar told reporters at the scene.

Beirut blast seen from the sea
Beirut explosion rocks boat seconds after blast

Dressed in hi-viz jackets, rescue workers clambered over the building that collapsed in the blast after nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated on 4 August.

About 190 people were killed and 6,000 more injured, with several people found under the rubble in the days after.

Floodlights were being set up at the Gemmayze building as the sun set, while a rescue worker carried a sniffer dog onto the mound of smashed masonry.

Mr Bitar said a civil defence unit had been called in to help with extra equipment needed to conduct the search.

More from Beirut Explosion

Any search and rescue effort, if it became clear someone was still alive, would likely take hours, local media said.

As the rescuers dug down, the Lebanese military said it had discovered 4.35 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored near Beirut's port.

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Image: The areas around the port were destroyed

Army experts were called in for an inspection of the dangerous chemical in four containers.

A statement said they were "dealing with the material", an apparent reference that it was being destroyed.

There were no details on the origin of the chemicals or their owner.

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Days after the 4 August blast, which left nearly 300,000 people homeless, French and Italian chemical experts identified more than 20 containers carrying dangerous chemicals at the port.

Those containers were moved and stored safely in locations around the port, the army said.

French experts and the FBI have been helping with the investigation into the blast, at the request of Lebanese authorities.

So far, 25 people have been detained over the explosion, most of them port and customs officials.

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2020-09-03 18:26:51Z
52781037291660

Beirut explosion: Rescuers investigate ‘heartbeat in the rubble’ - BBC News

Related Topics
  • Beirut port explosion

Rescuers in Beirut are searching through the rubble of a building amid reports a person could be alive - nearly one month after a powerful blast devastated the Lebanese capital.

Specialist sensor equipment has been brought to the Mar Mikhael area following unconfirmed reports that a heartbeat was detected.

More than 200 people died when 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in a port warehouse detonated on 4 August.

Some 300,000 people were left homeless.

  • How long can survivors last under rubble?

There has been outrage that so much hazardous material was stored unsafely in the port.

The Lebanese government's resignation shortly afterwards failed to pacify protesters, who clashed with police in the city for several nights.

In a separate development, four containers with 4.3 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were found on Thursday outside Beirut's seaport, the army said.

It said its specialists examined the containers, but gave no further details.

Onlookers

What's the latest from the scene?

A crowd has gathered at the collapsed building where a rescue team from Chile is working. It is still unknown if a person is alive under the rubble.

The rescuers were passing the building on Wednesday night when their dog gave a sign there was a person alive inside.

On returning this morning the dog went to the same place and gave the same sign. The group then used a scanner to search for a heartbeat or a breath from within, and came with equipment to dig down into the rubble.

Onlookers
The rescuers have split into teams of seven to move the debris piece by piece, due to the risk of further damage. Every so often there are calls for silence so the rescue team can listen intently, the BBC's Orla Guerin reports from the scene.

Red Cross staff have set up a tent with floodlights and supplies. Army, fire service and volunteer rescuers are on the scene, and they said it would take at least six hours to reach a potential survivor.

One of those waiting for news is a young man holding a Lebanese flag. He told the BBC that when he heard the news he could not stay at home.

1px transparent line

The Chilean rescuers arrived in Lebanon on 1 September. According to a local source, they have highly sensitive equipment which can detect breathing at a depth of 15m (49ft).

As of now there is no confirmation that anyone is alive under the rubble - but some of those gathered here are daring to hope, our correspondent says.

Al-Jazeera's correspondent Zeina Khodr tweeted that "search teams say they detected a body and what could be a person with a heartbeat under the rubble".

Mar Mikhael was one of the areas worst hit by the blast wave.

It is a historic neighbourhood that faces the port. It was famous for its night life before the disaster.

line

More on the explosion in Beirut

line

Related Topics

More on this story

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2020-09-03 18:13:00Z
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Coronavirus in Wales: Portugal and six Greek islands put on quarantine list - BBC News

Travellers to Wales from mainland Portugal and six Greek islands must self-isolate for 14 days from 04:00 BST Friday.

It is the first time Wales has applied its own changes to the quarantine law.

Gibraltar and French Polynesia will also be removed from the list of countries exempt from the quarantine restrictions.

Crete, Zakynthos, Mykonos, Lesvos, Paros and Antiparos are among the islands affected.

The announcement comes on the same day the UK government decided not to add Portugal to the list, despite a rise in cases.

Up until now Wales has used the same exemption list as the UK government in England.

The latest Welsh Government rules apply to travellers arriving home in Wales regardless of what part of the UK they returned through - including English airports.

Travellers to Wales from Zakynthos were asked to self-isolate earlier in the week, but the changes mean those who do not self-isolate face potential fines.

Greece had not been on the exemption list, except in Scotland, where it was added on Tuesday.

Wales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething said he had taken the decision because of a large number of cases of coronavirus "imported into Wales from tourists returning from the Greek islands".

He said there were more than 20 cases confirmed in passengers on one flight from Zante to Cardiff.

Mr Gething said a report from UK government's Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) had warned that travel from the countries and islands now listed "constitutes a public health risk".

The UK government's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ruled out any similar changes in England on Thursday.

On Twitter he said he was also taking the JBC into account.

Under current rules, breaking the quarantine restriction could result in a fine of £1,000.

Travellers abroad are expected to fill in a form online with their contact details 48 hours before they arrive back in the UK. Not providing accurate details could also result in fines of £1,920.

Are you affected by the new quarantine rules? Tell us about your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.

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2020-09-03 16:51:42Z
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Germany children deaths: Bodies of five found in flat in Solingen - BBC News

Police officers at a residential building where the bodies of five children were found in the western town of Solingen, Germany, 3 September 2020
image copyrightReuters

The bodies of five children have been found in a private apartment in a large block of flats in the western German city of Solingen, police say.

Police say they suspect the 27-year-old mother of killing the children before attempting to take her own life at a train station in nearby Düsseldorf.

Few details have been provided, with no information about the cause of death.

Emergency services were called to the residential block in the Hasseldelle area of the city on Thursday afternoon.

Responding to call at about 13:45 local time (11:45 GMT), police said they arrived at the apartment building in Solingen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, to discover the bodies of five children - three girls and two boys - aged from one to eight.

A sixth child, reportedly an 11-year-old boy, was said to have survived.

The children's grandmother, who lives 60km (37 miles) away in the city of Mönchengladbach, had alerted the emergency services, the German news website Bild reported.

Police officers at the entrance of a residential building where the bodies of five children were found in the western town of Solingen, Germany
image copyrightReuters

Police spokesman Stefan Weiand said the children's mother had been "seriously injured" after throwing herself in front of a train in Düsseldorf and was being treated in hospital under police guard.

"Background and further details are not known at this point and that is what we are trying to find out," Mr Weiand told journalists, adding that police investigators were at the scene "in full force".

Police said they were hoping to learn more about the "incredibly tragic occurrence" after speaking with the mother.

The entrance to the block of flats in Solingen has been sealed off and images show police cars and ambulances lining the streets, with forensic officers also at the scene.

Police are expected to provide more information soon.

Map showing the city of Solingen in western Germany
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  • Germany
  • Dusseldorf

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2020-09-03 16:23:00Z
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Lukashenko to Russian PM: 'There was no poisoning of Navalny' - Al Jazeera English

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has said Belarus should not allow external pressure to preserve its sovereign and territorial integrity, Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Mishustin made the comments on Thursday during a visit to Belarus, where longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko is under huge pressure from opposition protesters demanding his resignation after a disputed presidential election on August 9.

Meanwhile, in another sign of strengthened ties between Belarus and Russia, Lukashenko entered a growing rift between Western powers and Moscow over the poisoning of Kremlin foe Alexey Navalny.

Lukashenko claimed on Thursday that his security forces had intercepted German calls showing that Navalny's poisoning had been faked.

Lukashenko told Mishustin in Minsk that a call between Berlin and Warsaw showed that the incident was a "falsification".

"There was no poisoning of Navalny," Lukashenko told a poker-faced Mishustin during their televised meeting.

"They did it - I quote - in order to discourage [Russian President Vladimir] Putin from sticking his nose into Belarus's affairs."

Lukashenko provided no further details but said he would hand over transcripts to Russia's security services.

The claim about Navalny could be aimed at currying favour with Moscow, which has voiced support for Lukashenko during the protests.

Navalny's top aide Leonid Volkov dismissed the claim as ridiculous, accusing the Russian prime minister of being an accomplice to the "attempted murder" by playing along in "this circus".

Germany said on Wednesday that tests had proven Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, after he fell ill on a plane in Siberia last month and was eventually taken to Berlin for treatment.     

Meanwhile, the global chemical weapons agency Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said the poisoning of any individual with a toxic nerve agent would be considered the use of a banned chemical weapon.

Novichok was banned this year by the OPCW.

Navalny, 44, remains in an artificially induced coma but his condition is improving, his German doctors have said.

Lukashenko: 'Our neighbours would like us to collapse'

Lukashenko promoted hardline loyalists to top posts in his security apparatus on Thursday in an effort to strengthen his grip on the former Soviet republic after weeks of mass protests and strikes.

Lukashenko, facing the biggest challenge to his 26-year rule, accompanied the reshuffle with instructions to act tough in the face of what he has repeatedly alleged is foreign aggression.

"Belarus finds itself confronting an external aggressor one-to-one," he told the new security chiefs.

"Therefore I ask you to take this to the people. They shouldn't condemn me for any sort of softness. There's no softness here. The country is working, although many, especially our neighbours, would like us to collapse."

In recent years the Kremlin has pushed for closer economic and political integration between the ex-Soviet countries but Lukashenko has so far resisted an outright unification. 

Lukashenko and Putin are set to meet in Moscow in the next few weeks.

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFsamF6ZWVyYS5jb20vbmV3cy8yMDIwLzA5L2x1a2FzaGVua28tcnVzc2lhbi1wbS1wb2lzb25pbmctbmF2YWxueS0yMDA5MDMxMzIzMjM1NDIuaHRtbNIBZ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFsamF6ZWVyYS5jb20vYW1wL25ld3MvMjAyMC8wOS9sdWthc2hlbmtvLXJ1c3NpYW4tcG0tcG9pc29uaW5nLW5hdmFsbnktMjAwOTAzMTMyMzIzNTQyLmh0bWw?oc=5

2020-09-03 14:06:00Z
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