US Senators request Trump to initiate probe into Kremlin critic Navalny's poisoning

The leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee have requested President Donald Trump to consider whether the Russian government poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a chemical nerve agent, which would be subject to sanctions. The letter by US Senators Jim Risch and Bob Menendez followed a similar request from leaders of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on September 8 amid growing international demand for an appropriate response to Navalny’s poisoning.

“We are very concerned by assessments that Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned in August 2020, by a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok family,” the members wrote.

The duo said that Navalny’s poisoning is particularly disturbing as a Novichok agent was also used in the March 2018 attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. They added that the Trump administration had then held Russia responsible, stressing that the United States must again make clear that any such behaviour is “not acceptable.”

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Demand for explanation

German health authorities had confirmed the poisoning of Navalny with a nerve agent from the Novichok group, citing toxicological test results. Later, specialist laboratories in France and Sweden also confirmed the poisoning with the Soviet-style nerve agent Novichok. Navalny's team said that the politician was poisoned at his hotel room in the Siberian city of Tomsk and not at the airport as suspected earlier. 

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron had demanded a swift explanation from Russia on the “attempted assassination” of Navalny using a nerve agent. Speaking at the annual gathering of UN General Assembly, Macron warned Moscow of consequences if it fails to provide “swift and flawless” explanation on the poison attack.

“We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons in Europe, Russia or Syria,” the French President told the UNGA meet, urging Russia to shed “full light” on the incident.  

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