It has been exactly one month since someone tried to kill me with a military-grade nerve agent. Two independent laboratories in France and Sweden, as well as a specialized Bundeswehr laboratory, confirmed the presence of Novichok on and in my body. And yet, in Russia’s political and legal reality, none of this exists. Instead, there are TV talk shows claiming either that I was never poisoned at all, or that yes, of course I was poisoned, but it was done either by employees of the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) or by Western intelligence services. In Russia, SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) chief Naryshkin claims that Navalny was sent to Germany without any Novichok, and somehow ended up there with Novichok on him (they must have sprinkled it on me there, I suppose).
In Russia, there is no criminal case—only a “pre-investigation inquiry into the hospitalization.” It is as if I did not fall into a coma on a plane, but simply slipped in a supermarket and broke my leg.
Fine, I expected nothing else. Right now, I am interested in one thing only: my clothes. Specifically, the clothes I was wearing on the day I was poisoned, August 20. The 30 days of this “pre-investigation inquiry” were used to hide this crucial piece of evidence. Before they allowed me to be taken to Germany, they removed all my clothes and sent me off completely naked. Given that Novichok was found on my body, and that contact exposure is highly likely, my clothes are a very important piece of physical evidence.
The 30 days legally allotted for the pre-investigation inquiry have expired. I demand that my clothes be carefully packed into a plastic bag and returned to me. After that, you can go back to discussing on TV talk shows how I supposedly had a diabetic episode—and that even that was probably staged by employees of the ACF.