Macron Tells Putin Navalny Attack an ‘Assassination Attempt’

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron backed Angela Merkel’s demand that Russia clarify the poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, calling the attack an “assassination attempt” as two more European laboratories found traces of nerve agent Novichok.

The comments ratchet up tensions between the European Union and Russian President Vladimir Putin over accusations that Navalny was targeted with the weapons-grade substance. As Navalny’s condition continues to improve in a Berlin hospital near Merkel’s chancellery, the German leader has pledged to coordinate a joint response directed at the Kremlin.

Macron spoke by phone with Putin, expressing his “deep concern about the criminal act carried out against Alexey Navalny,” according to a statement Monday from the Elysee palace. “Clarification is needed from Russia in the context of a credible and transparent investigation,” Macron told the Russian leader.

The French president confirmed his country’s own conclusions that Novichok had been deployed, an accusation rejected by Moscow. Putin denounced “groundless allegations against Russia that aren’t based on anything” and reiterated the Russian position that Germany needs to provide samples, as well as test results to Russian doctors, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Merkel’s chief spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said earlier Monday that scientists in France and Sweden reached the same conclusion as a German military laboratory that Novichok was used in the Navalny attack.

The Swedish and French labs, as well as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, had all taken their own samples, according to Maria Adebahr, a foreign ministry spokeswoman. The OPCW, based in The Hague, is currently conducting its own tests, Seibert said.

Asked whether Russian scientists would be given the same opportunity, Adebahr said that they had access to all the samples they would have needed when Navalny was hospitalized in Russia before being transported to Berlin.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that if Russia wants proof it can ask the OPCW, where it’s also represented. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov canceled a planned visit to Berlin Tuesday after changes to Maas’s schedule left time for only 90 minutes of talks, his ministry said in Moscow.

“Our western partners have crossed all lines of reason and decency in this,” Lavrov said in an interview with RTVi. “In effect, they’re demanding we confess.”

“If it weren’t for Navalny, they would have thought up something else as a pretext to impose more sanctions,” Lavrov said, adding that Russia still lacks the evidence needed to open a criminal probe into the case.

Navalny had been working to build support for candidates opposed to the ruling United Russia party when he suddenly fell ill in Siberia last month.

The opposition leader, who began to wake from a medically induced coma last week, has been taken off a ventilator and can leave his bed for short periods, the Charite hospital where he is receiving treatment said Monday in a tweet.

Merkel has repeatedly demanded answers from the Kremlin and Seibert on Monday reiterated that Berlin will discuss possible reactions to the attack with its European and NATO allies.

Germany would not be expected to take any action until it receives the test results from the OPCW, according to an official familiar with the organization’s processes who asked not to be identified.

That could happen as early as the end of this week or at the beginning of next week, and the results would likely be announced by the German government, the official said.

Kremlin-backed candidates swept most major contests in Russian regional elections over the weekend but Navalny supporters claimed wins in two Siberian cities, including the one where he was poisoned.

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