Russia Accuses Germany of Refusing to Cooperate on Navalny Medical Probe

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Russia on Friday accused Germany of refusing to cooperate with it to establish the cause of opposition leader Alexei Navalny's illness as he continues to recover in Berlin.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that doctors in Siberia had passed information to their colleagues in Berlin and that Russia was ready to collaborate for the sake of Navalny's speedy recovery. Unfortunately, in response we received a categorical refusal from the German government to cooperate in establishing the truth about the situation with Alexei Navalny.

The foreign ministry called Germany's conclusion that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok predictable and said it was reached in the atmosphere of ongoing anti-Russian hysteria in the West.

Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Friday that his recovery would take a long time and that he would undergo rehabilitation in Germany.

The 44 year old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner collapsed on a flight to Moscow from Siberia in what his allies say was a state sanctioned poison attack. He was discharged from a hospital in Berlin this week after receiving treatment for a month. In a blog post on earlier on Friday, Navalny thanked Russian pilots who made an emergency landing when he fell ill and the paramedics who first treated him.

Labs in Germany, France and Sweden have said they confirmed the staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet military-grade nerve agent. The Kremlin has denied the allegations and accused Western leaders of launching a disinformation campaign over the opposition leader's illness.

Russia insists medical tests its doctors carried out found no poison in Navalny's body. It says it lacks grounds for a criminal investigation, despite international calls for a transparent probe.