Navalny, who fell ill on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow last month, is being treated at a hospital in Berlin.
German government spokesman Stefan Seibert said toxicological tests on samples taken from Navalny were carried out at a German military laboratory. He said he provided “clear evidence of a chemical nerve agent” from the Novichok group.
In a statement, Seibert said it was “shocking” that “the novel was attacked in Russia with a chemical nerve agent.”
“The federal government condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms,” the statement said, adding: “The Russian government is requested to explain itself to the incident.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the Kremlin had not received any information from Germany that Navalny had been poisoned by a substance from the Novichok group, according to the state news agency Tass on Sunday.
Seibert said German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed Navalny’s case with ministers early Wednesday, and the government would inform the European Union, NATO and the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons about the results of the investigation.
The German government concluded in a statement: “We hope Alexei Navalny’s full recovery.”
Well known Kremlin critic
The 44-year-old Naval, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell ill on August 20 on his way from Siberia to Moscow.
In the dramatic video footage of the plane, a man was apparently in agony.
The flight made an emergency landing in Omsk, and before his wife and supporters requested that he be taken to Germany for treatment, Navalny was transferred to a hospital there.
The anti-corruption blogger was brought to Berlin on August 22 and taken to the city’s Charita Hospital, where he is believed to be in an induced coma.
Other Kremlin critics or opponents have been involved in apparent poisoning incidents or have suffered mysterious deaths.
In 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was the target of a Novichok nerve agent attack in the English cathedral city of Salisbury.
Andrea Sella, a professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, told CNN: “The identification of the poison as one of the family of Novichok agents underscores the Russian government’s responsibility for this atrocity.”
“The Russian government has the motivation for it, but also a track record on many levels,” Sella said. “It shows both their ruthlessness, but also their level of emancipation. It is clear that they care little about international opinion and are willing to take action because they know the consequences are very small.”
This is a developing story. Follow more.
CNN’s Gianluca Mesophyre and Daria Tarasova contributed to the report.
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