Russia rejects Navalny poisoning accusations, sees no grounds for sanctions

The Kremlin said Thursday there was no reason to blame the Russian state after Germany said opposition politician Alexei Navalny had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.

TheKremlinwas speaking a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Navalny had been poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him.

"There is no reason to accuse the Russian state," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, cautioning the West against jumping to conclusions and imposing sanctions.

"We would not want our partners in Germany and other European countries to rush to some sort of judgement."

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics, Navalny fell sick on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20, after which he was taken to a hospital in the city of Omsk in Siberia following an emergency landing.

As international pressure mounted, he was shifted to Berlin's Charite hospital. Doctors had claimed last week that he was most possibly poisoned.

Russia has continuously rejected accusing of deliberate poisoning by the country, calling the accusations "empty noise". Russian doctors who had treated Navalny in Siberia have repeatedly claimed that poisoning was ruled out as no trace of poisonous substances was found in his body.

Peskov said there was no reason to discuss sanctions against Moscow after Merkel said Germany would consult its NATO allies about how to respond to the poisoning.

Steffen Seibert the spokesperson to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said that after testing by a military laboratory, it was ascertained that “a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group" was used on Navalny.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said,"In general we confirm that we are ready and have an interest in full cooperation and exchange of data on this topic with Germany" reported by RIA Novosti state news agency.