I Prepared 'Novichok' in the Kitchen, Drank from a Hidden Bottle on the Airplane: Navalny to Putin

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny sarcastically responded on his Facebook page to the remarks made by President Vladimir Putin, in which the president suggested that Navalny might have consumed the poison himself.

“Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart, 'Navalny, perhaps, swallowed the poison himself.' That’s a good option. I think it's worthy of thorough investigation. I prepared 'Novichok' in the kitchen. I drank from a hidden bottle on the airplane. I fell into a coma. Before that, I came to an agreement with my wife, friends, and colleagues that if the Ministry of Health insists on transferring me to Germany for treatment, they would not allow it to happen under any circumstances. Dying in an Omsk hospital and ending up in the Omsk morgue, where the cause of death would be registered as ‘lived long enough’—that was the ultimate goal of my cunning plan. But Putin outsmarted me. You can't deceive him that easily. As a result, I lay in a coma for 18 days like a fool, but I didn't reach my goal. The provocation failed,” Navalny wrote.

It should be noted that Navalny’s health deteriorated sharply on August 20 while flying from Tomsk to Moscow. The plane that transported him made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was hospitalized. On August 22, Navalny was transferred by plane to the Charite hospital in Berlin, where specialists later declared that he had been poisoned. German military experts found traces of a toxic substance belonging to the 'Novichok' group in skin, blood, and urine samples.

Just yesterday, Alexei Navalny was discharged from the Charite clinic in Berlin, with doctors considering a full recovery possible. This was stated in the clinic's announcement. “Alexei Navalny, who was treated at the Charite clinic since August 22, 2020, has been discharged,” the statement read.