Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny accused president Vladimir Putin of being behind his poisoning on Thursday, as he vowed to return to Russia to press on with his opposition campaign.
In the first media interview since his poisoning, Navalny gave harrowing details of his collapse on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow after he was poisoned by what the West identified as the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner also said he would not be cowed by the experience, pledging to get fit as soon as possible to continue his fight.
‘Not returning would mean that Putin has achieved his aim. And my job now is to stay the guy who’s not afraid,’ he told the Spiegel weekly.
The Kremlin immediately hit back at Navalny’s statements, calling them ‘groundless and unacceptable’.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also claimed that Navalny was working with the CIA, while the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said Putin had helped saved his life.
The Kremlin critic was evacuated to Berlin for treatment after he collapsed in August following a campaign trip to support opposition candidates in local elections in Siberia.
He was discharged just over a week ago and his first comments to the press came as European leaders were holding a summit during which the question of a response to Russia may be raised over his case.❐
