Putin critic Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent, Germany says

A chemical nerve agent was used to poison Alexei Navalny, prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Germany says.

The Russian opposition leader was hospitalized last month after falling ill on a flight to Moscow, and after he was transferred to a hospital in Germany, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said tests conducted at a German military lab found "proof without doubt of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group," The Associated Press reports. The press secretary for Navalny's anti-corruption organization previously said that "we suspect that Alexei was poisoned by something mixed into [his] tea."

Russian doctors had claimed that Navalny wasn't poisoned, but a German hospital later said he was, and that he was suffering from "intoxication by a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors." Novichok was used in 2018 to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, AP notes.

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The German spokesperson on Wednesday described it as "startling" that Navalny was "the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve agent in Russia," reports CNN, also saying the "federal government condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms" and that "we hope for a full recovery."