The CBC is reporting a German military lab concluded Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok type. This is the same nerve agent used to poison Russian spy Sergie Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Britain in 2018. Navalny remains in a medically induced coma in a German hospital (Blog Post).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the event as “attempted murder by poisoning of one of Russia’s leading opposition figures.” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the poisoning “outrageous” and the United States National Security Council spokesperson said the poisoning was “completely reprehensible.”

The Kremlin has not replied to the accusations and there has been no public comment from the Russian ambassador to Germany. The Kremlin has refused to answer accusations of poisoning in the past.

Alexander Litvinenko was a FSB agent who defected to the United Kingdom in 2000 after accusing his superiors of orchestrating the murder of businessman Boris Berezovsky. He became a journalist and wrote books describing murders and bombings to put Vladimir Putin into power. He also accused the government of the assassination of human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya. Later that year (2006) Berezovksy was poisoned with a radioactive isotope in a drink at a cafe. It took 23 days for him to die of radiation syndrome.