France, Sweden confirm Novichok poisoning of Navalny, back Germany

Laboratories in France and Sweden have confirmed that the substance used to poison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was a form of the nerve agent Novichok, the German government said Monday, results that match Berlin’s own findings and provide additional confidence that the Russian state was involved.

“Three laboratories have now independently provided evidence of a substance from the Novichok group as the cause of Mr Navalny’s poisoning,” a German government spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement. “We renew the call for Russia to explain what has happened.”

Navalny, who remains heavily guarded by German police in the prestigious Charité hospital in Berlin, continues to improve, is breathing by himself again and is able to walk, the hospital said in a statement Monday. “He is increasingly being mobilized and intermittently able to leave his sick bed,” the statement read.

Russian officials did not immediately respond to news of the French and Swedish tests, but they have insisted that there was no proof Navalny had been poisoned. They have suggested several alternative theories.

Read: Recovering from Novichok, Russia's Navalny now able to leave bed

But even as patience with President Vladimir Putin is running thin, Berlin is struggling to determine how to respond. Some have suggested cancelling the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a nearly completed, $11 billion project to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany. So far, however, the German government, its European allies and the United States have not taken any action aside from raising the prospect of additional sanctions on Russia.

The poisoning of Navalny is the latest in a long string of killings or attempted killings of Kremlin opponents in recent years. On August 20, after campaigning in Siberia for anti-government candidates for local offices, he collapsed, was hospitalized and flown to Germany for treatment two days later.

Local elections were held across Russia over the weekend, and Navalny and his allies made modest gains. In the opposition’s biggest victory, Putin’s United Russia party lost its majority on the City Council in Novosibirsk, a Siberian industrial hub and Russia’s third-largest city.

German officials are considering a variety of possible sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes against individuals, and are hoping for a response backed by all European Union member states.