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Novichok poisoning of Navalny will heighten tensions between Russia and west

<span>Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP</span>
Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Germany’s unequivocal finding that the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok will be referred in the first instance to Nato and to the European Union, but leading politicians have already suggested that Berlin had implied state responsibility.

The White House described the poisoning as “completely reprehensible”, and a US source said the use of the same chemical agent as deployed against Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 showed that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was prepared to be bold.

Donald Trump, criticised for his reluctance to criticise Putin, will be under pressure to let US intelligence agencies to cooperate with Navalny’s supporters to identify the Russian agents who were tracking the opposition leader on his visit to Siberia, the site of his poisoning.

Related: Using novichok against Navalny is a Russian message of menace

The issue – likely to create more acute tensions between Russia and the west – will also be raised at the already divided UN security council, where there will be calls for an international inquiry into the incident. The issue is also being referred by the German government to the UN chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW, based in the Hague.

The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, urged Moscow to “explain” what had happened, and the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said he was “deeply concerned” that Navalny was poisoned with novichok, a chemical weapon previously used with lethal effect in the UK.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that this banned chemical weapon has been used again, and once more we see violence directed against a leading Russian opposition figure,” Raab said.

“The Russian government has a clear case to answer. It must tell the truth about what happened to Mr Navalny. We will work closely with Germany, our allies and international partners to demonstrate that there are consequences for using banned chemical weapons anywhere in the world.”

The president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, denounced what she called the “despicable and cowardly” poisoning and said those responsible should be brought to justice.

The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, condemned the “shocking” use of the nerve agent and demanded a proper investigation by Moscow. The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Russia had grave questions to answer. “Given Mr Navalny’s political status in Russia, the attack against him raises serious questions. It is the responsibility of the Russian authorities to respond to them,” he said.

Germany has itself demanded a full explanation from the Russian ambassador to Berlin, but Moscow complained it had been given no prior notification of the German claim, and denied any state involvement.

The foreign policy spokesman for the German CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Jürgen Hardt, said: “This confirms our worst fears. This toxin is very difficult to obtain and can only come from highly specialised laboratories.”

Sandra Kalniete, the former Latvian foreign minister and vice chair of the European People’s Party in the European parliament, said in a statement that all instigators and perpetrators must be held accountable, have their bank accounts frozen and be denied entry to the European Union.

She also called for an international inquiry, a stance western diplomats are most likely to take after waiting to hear the Russian explanation.

There were already signs that Russia was being judged guilty on the basis of precedent, motive and the limited access to the chemical – a Soviet-era nerve agent.

Hardt blamed the Russian government for the poisoning: “It is obvious to us that this toxin could only be procured and manufactured with the help of the Russian government.” He was backed by Carl Bildt, the former Swedish foreign minister and prime minister,.

Dawn Sturgess
Dawn Sturgess died in June 2018 after being exposed to novichok that is believed to have been planted in Salisbury by Russian spies. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA

The use of novichok, the chemical used to poison the former KGB officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018, will raise questions as to whether Russian diplomats will be expelled, but the parallel is not exact, since Skripal and his daughter were poisoned on foreign soil, endangering the lives of British citizens and killing one woman, Dawn Sturgess. Navalny was poisoned while returning to Moscow from Siberia, making the criminal act an internal Russian affair.

In the case of Skripal and Salisbury, Britain managed to persuade 16 EU countries to expel a total of 33 Russian diplomats. Eight non-EU countries expelled a 27 further Russian diplomats, and the US expelled 60. Nato for its part expelled seven Russian diplomats, making the expulsions the largest collective diplomatic punishment since the second world war.

But Nato after Skripal did demand that Russia declare its novichok supplies to the UN chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW. The OPCW also agreed last November that the novichok family of agents was explicitly classified as a chemical weapon.

The decision, incorporating some Russian proposals, was seen as a victory for diplomacy, since the OPCW had become a battleground between Russia and the west over ascribing responsibility to the Syrian government for its use of chemical weapons.

Canada, the EU, the US and the UK are all considering imposing sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a Putin supporter, over his alleged manipulation of his country’s presidential elections.