Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said he was poisoned for posing a threat in the run-up to the elections. On Tuesday, a Russian YouTuber published a 2.5-hour interview with Navalny.
It is his first video interview since he was released from the hospital in Berlin, where he recovered from poisoning with a Novichok nerve poison.
The opposition leader thinks the Russian intelligence service poisoned him on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.
The authorities would have seen him as a threat in the run-up to next year’s parliamentary elections. “They realized there were big, big problems that posed a danger ahead of the Duma elections.”
In the interview, which was already recorded on Monday, Navalny says that his health is going a lot better. Doctors are also surprised at his speedy recovery, which can take another two months. He doesn’t know how the nerve gas got into his body, but he could have touched something poisonous.
The doctors in Omsk, Russia, delayed the evacuation to Germany, according to Navalny, in the hope that the nerve gas would have disappeared from his body upon arrival. “The doctors misjudged how long that would take.”
Navalny became very ill during a flight in Russia in August. He was allowed to go to Germany to be treated there.
Investigators determined that he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve poison. Western countries are demanding clarification from Moscow, but President Putin’s regime denies any involvement.