Germany: Navalny ill with similar Russian agent that poisoned Skripals

Sept. 2 (UPI) -- German authorities said Wednesday Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent similar to the one that nearly killed a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain two years ago.

Government spokesman Steffan Seibert said toxicology tests from a military lab showed that Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir's most effective and vocal critics, was given a poison in the Novichok-class group.

Novichok is a class of chemical created by the former Soviet Union that poisoned former double agent Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter in Salisbury, Britain, in 2018. The two eventually recovered and the poisoning was largely believed to have been ordered by the Kremlin.

"The [German] government condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms," Seibert said in a statement. "The Russian government is urged to explain itself regarding the incident."

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Wednesday that the Kremlin hadn't received any information from Berlin connected with a possible Novichok poisoning.

"We are waiting for a reply to [a] request by the Prosecutor General's Office," Russia's foreign ministry said.

Navalny became sick on a plane traveling from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. Two days later, at the urging of his family and political team, he was taken to Berlin for treatment.

The Kremlin previously rejected calls for an investigation unless German doctors could determine the agent that poisoned Navalny.

"If the substance is established and if it is established that this is poisoning, then, of course, this will be a cause for investigation," Peskov said on Aug. 25.