Putin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned with novichok, scientists confirm

The German government has said scientists in France and Sweden have confirmed that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok.

Special labs in Sweden and France have confirmed the initial results from Germany, government spokesman Steffen Seibert saidin a statement.

"We renew the call for Russia to explain itself on the events. We are in close contact with our European partners on further steps," he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was the victim of an “attempted murder by poisoning” and the aim was to silence him

The Russian dissident is receiving treatment in Germany after he fell into a coma after being poisoned on a flight to Moscow.

Earlier today Ms Merkel's government he had been poisoned with novichok, the same chemical used in the Salisbury attack in the UK.

After that finding was announced Wednesday, Ms Merkel said there are “very serious questions that only the Russian government can answer and must answer.”

Mr Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Thursday August 20, and was taken to a hospital in the city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing.

He was later transferred to Berlin’s Charite hospital, where doctors said there were indications that he had been poisoned.

A spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel said test by the nation's military scientists revealed the presence of “a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.”

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