I’m very glad to be able to say this phrase again.
Three important things I want to say.
I understand perfectly well why officials are putting out these hellish statements practically every day. Like this nonsense from Peskov. They dream of me not coming back. I have no doubt that if there is ever a criminal case over the attempt on my life, it will be brought against me or against ACF staff. And there will be raids on our offices. Nothing new there.
However, my position has not changed. Right now my priority is to recover as quickly as possible so that I can return and work in Moscow. How long that will take—I honestly don’t know. And no one knows; the doctors say frankly that there is simply no experience of observing cases like this. They are optimistic, and so am I. ACF’s work is continuing as usual thanks to you.
In my interview with Dud, I said that I was certain Putin ordered my murder. Everything that has happened since that interview has only confirmed my certainty. There is still no criminal case. The Interior Ministry says it sees no grounds for opening one. Well of course—what possible grounds could there be?
After all, it’s only that a person almost died, and even the OPCW (the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, created with Russia’s active participation) has confirmed that I was poisoned with a military-grade chemical weapon.
If there is no criminal case, then where are my clothes? Why can’t I get my own medical records from Omsk? Why did police officers come running into the hospital shouting, “You can only go near him in a chemical protection suit”?
This case would be very easy to solve. You’ve seen how detailed the FSB’s reports are on the round-the-clock surveillance of me, haven’t you? There would be no problem identifying everyone who entered my hotel room or even came near me. It’s all on video. But there is no investigation, and you yourselves can easily answer the question: who is the one person capable of directing everyone—from the courts and the police to the FSB and the hospitals?
Interestingly, even former German Chancellor Schröder, who yesterday sued the newspaper BILD over my interview, writes in his statement:
In other words, Putin’s friend and confidant, who chairs the board of directors of Rosneft, has no doubt that I was poisoned, and describes what happened as nothing less than an “attempted murder.”
But above all, what I want to say to everyone right now is: thank you.
The support of all kinds of people—those I know and those I don’t, those close to me and those far away—became that enormous hand that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and pulled me out of where I was.
Thank you.