Pressure mounts on Russia to investigate Navalny's poisoning

Kremlin said Wednesday it doesn't want illness of Russia's opposition leer, who is in a coma in a German hospital after a suspected poisoning, to affect relations with West as international pressure mounted on Moscow to investigate Alexei Navalny's condition.

statement came two days after doctors at Berlin hospital where 44-year-old is being treated said tests indicated he was poisoned , and minutes before before U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined or Western officials in demanding a transparent investigation.

“ poisoning of (Alexei) Navalny shocked world,” Johnson said in a Tweet. “ perpetrators must be held accountable, (and) UK will join international efforts to ensure justice is done.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Wednesday that Moscow “categorically” disagreed with “hasty” conclusions that Navalny was a victim of an intentional poisoning, and said it doesn't want situation to affect its ties with West.

“Of course, we wouldn't want that... Secondly, re is reason whatsoever for it,” Peskov told reporters. “We are absolutely, less than ors, interested in understanding what led to a coma."

Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Thursday and was taken to a hospital in Siberian city of Omsk after plane me an emergency landing.

Over weekend, he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin, where doctors found indications of “cholinesterase inhibitors” in his system.

se act by blocking breakdown of a key chemical in body, acetycholine, that transmits signals between nerve cells. Navalny is being treated with antidote atropine.

His allies say Kremlin is behind illness of its most prominent critic, accusations that officials deunced as “empty ise.”

pressure on Moscow mounted after Charité revealed its findings. Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a thorough investigation into Navalny's condition. Officials in France and rway echoed her sentiment, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said U.S. “stands rey to assist” with a probe, if reports of a poisoning “prove accurate.”

Pompeo's deputy Stephen Biegun met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and or diplomats on Tuesday. According to Russia's Foreign Ministry, Biegun warned that if Navalny’s poisoning is confirmed, U.S. could take steps that will exceed Washington’s response to findings of Russia’s meddling in 2016 U.S. presidential election.

ministry said Russian diplomats warned Biegun against making unfounded accusations and ted that Russian authorities stand for a “thorough and maximally objective investigation of what happened.”

Kremlin said Tuesday re were grounds for a criminal investigation so far since it hasn’t been fully established what caused politician to fall into a coma. Peskov said Navalny's condition may have been triggered by or causes.

Merkel’s spokeswoman, Ulrike Demmer, said Wednesday re was reason to doubt German doctors' findings.

“From side of German government, re is fullest trust in work of doctors,” Demmer said, ding that Germany takes clinical evidence of a poisoning “very seriously.”