Sobol: Kremlin involved in Navalny illness

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's closest ally said authorities are reluctant to investigate the alleged poisoning of the politician, insisting he was deliberately poisoned and that the Kremlin was behind it.

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 Aug 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing.

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

Lyubov Sobol, a prominent opposition politician and a lawyer at Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said all the existing evidence points to the Kremlin.

"Simply, nobody else could do it. Again, the method of the poisoning is the sign of that. Neuroparalytic poison is something that you can't buy at a pharmacy. It's a combat substance. And because of that, they will not investigate it," She told the Associated Press on Friday.

So far, Russian authorities appear reluctant to investigate the politician’s condition.

Navalny’s team submitted a request last week to Russia’s Investigative Committee, demanding authorities launch a criminal probe on charges of an attempt on the life of a public figure and attempted murder, but said there was no reaction.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he saw no grounds for a criminal case until the cause of the politician’s condition was fully established.

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office said Thursday that a preliminary inquiry launched last week hasn’t found any indication of “deliberate criminal acts committed against” Navalny.

Sobol says while Navalny's condition hasn't prompted big protests in Russia, it has stirred the outrage brewing there.

"I saw a lot of comments from well-known public figures in Russia who have never spoken out for Alexei Navalny before, (but now) spoke their minds and said that this was outrageous, it shouldn't be this way," Sobol said. "It's a turning point."

Even with their leader in the hospital, Navalny's team continues its work on corruption investigations and regional election campaigns in Moscow and dozens of other regions.

Navalny's most recent project, Smart Voting, identifies candidates that are most likely to beat those from Putin's United Russia party and his supporters actively campaign for them.

According to Sobol, the team is used to working in his absence - frequently arrested, Navalny has spent more than a year in jail in recent years.

"So we know how to work without direct orders from Navalny. We understand what we need to do," Sobol said.