[Peace-discuss] Alexey Navalny's health is a proxy fight over interference in gas pipeline?

[J.B. Nicholson]

I wrote:
> Germany's choice to offer no evidence to back up its claim of
> poisoning is reminiscent of how the UK behaved in the Skripal
> poisoning -- even when Russian nationals are involved, the UK
> withheld both access to the Skripals and material evidence to back up
> the UK's claim that it was "highly likely" (according to then-PM 
> Theresa May) that Russia had a hand in poisoning the Skripals. A Tory
> MP was quoted calling that poisoning "state-sponsored attempted
> murder". As far as I know, the UK has to date not come up with
> evidence to back up their claims.

But despite allegedly being poisoned with a known-lethal poison (one of
the Novichok toxins), Navalny is out of the Berlin hospital and on the
road to "full recovery" (https://on.rt.com/aqx4). Navalny has posted a
video of himself walking down stairs (https://on.rt.com/aqo7); this is
not something one would expect to see a nearly-dead man doing.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sees the connection in 
https://on.rt.com/aqll
> “At this stage, everything is subordinated to undermine relations
> between Russia and the European Union as much as possible,” Lavrov
> told news agnency Sputnik when asked to comment on the developments.
> This way or another, a pretext to pile further pressure on Moscow was
> conveniently used by an unspecified “aggressive Russophobic minority”
> within the EU, he said.
> 
> Earlier this month, the German military’s chemical weapons lab
> proclaimed that Navalny was poisoned by a nerve agent from the
> notorious ‘Novichok’ family. However, Russia’s attempts to inquire
> into these serious claims are stuck in a bureaucratic game of ping
> pong, Lavrov says. “Germany says it can’t tell us anything, they tell
> us to go to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
> [OPCW]. We went there several times. Ask Berlin, they say,” the
> foreign minister revealed.
> 
> This sidelining of Russia from the inquiry bears a striking
> resemblance to the 2018 Skirpal story, he believes. “We have already
> gone through this… all this has already happened in the Skripals
> [case],” Lavrov said.

There's still no hard evidence of German doctors' claim that Navalny
was poisoned with a poison from the Novichok group:
> German doctors were the first to claim he was the victim of Novichok,
> saying traces of the poison were found in his system. Russian doctors
> in Omsk countered this, insisting that Navalny’s samples showed no
> toxic substances. Also, the scientists behind the development of the
> nerve agent stated that his symptoms did not indicate exposure to
> their creation.

Related videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpFVZukLcOc -- Russian OPCW
representative Shulgin speaks to RT on Alexey Navalny case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiC_ofuw6bA -- "Navalny released from
Charite hospital, his condition improves" also has interesting
interview with political commentator Eike Hamer who comments on why
this entire story about Novichok poisoning "is a big hoax" and "a big,
big fake story". Eike explains why Germany won't come up with evidence
to back their claims -- he claims that Germany can't. Hamer says "maybe
the media and the partners from US, France, and especially Poland
pushed the German government and the European Union to destroy the
relationship between Germany and Russia but Germany doesn't want to
destroy the relationship". This relationship concerns the Russian gas
pipeline (Nord Stream 2) running through Germany.

-J