Right-wing columnist on Navalny poisoning

A pro-government commentator doesn’t believe that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Russian secret services.

Magyar Nemzet’s István Krómer wonders why leading international media outlets systematically spread the story of a famous Russian dissident having been poisoned by a team of Russian secret service operatives while on a speaker’s tour in Siberia. He doesn’t deny that traces of poison, probably the ill-famed Novitchok were found in Navalny’s blood. However, he dismisses as unbelievable the narrative according to which the Russian secret services were not only unable to carry out such an assassination attempt had they actually wanted to, but also to keep such a mission secret. He also rejects the version that one of the members of the team that supposedly attempted to assassinate Navalny told him about the details of the operation in an open phone call conversation. In conclusion, Krómer argues that Navalny does not represent any serious threat to the Russian government, therefore the authorities had no rational reason to send a death squad to kill him.

Tags: Navalny, Russia, secret services