seriously, but expects evidence because the did an excellent job and they could be trusted. representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Naryshkin’s words harmonize with those of Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are the Chairman of the State Duma. Vyacheslav of the opinion that there are no reasons to Volodin questioned the assessment of the open a criminal case. Alexander Lukashenko German doctors, saying that Russia has not was supposed to help the Russian narrative. received “any information about Navalny’s It is not known whether he came up with it condition since he crossed the Russian border.” himself or if Moscow suggested it to him, but “If something happens to him now and his during the meeting with the Russian Prime condition deteriorates, we will not be able to Minister he said that his intelligence services rule out that it was a provocation orchestrated intercepted Warsaw’s conversation with Berlin, in the territory of Germany,” Volodin declared. which proves that Navalny’s poisoning is a fraud. The materials provided by Belarus on the case The record of the alleged conversation was of Alexei Navalny “circulate among the special later revealed and is an absolute disgrace to services” and “respectively are analyzed by our the Belarusian regime. The incompetence of special services,” said the Kremlin spokesman this forgery is indeed shocking. And yet, it has Dmitry Pskov on September 4. He accused the served Moscow. “Foreign Intelligence Service is German doctors treating Navalny in a hospital closely following what is happening in Belarus, in Berlin of not being as open as the medics in as well as the plans of the West in relation to Omsk, where Navalny was treated first after this country,” said Sergey Naryshkin – head he lost consciousness. On September 6, Maria of the SVR, on September 2. He assured that Zacharowa – a spokeswoman for the Russian he is in contact with the Belarusian special Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that the forces. One day later Naryshkin did not rule out German side was delaying the examination of that Lukashenko’s opinion that the poisoning of the oppositionist’s health. She asked whether Alexei Navalny could be a fake is justified. He this delay was not intentional and allowed the added that he himself allows such an option. possibility that Berlin was playing a “double The head of the SVR argued that the doctors game.” who examined Navalny at the hospital in Omsk
7 September 2020
HOW MUCH WILL LUKASHENKO PAY FOR THE SUPPORT OF RUSSIA? The Belarusian dictator remains in power only thanks to the support of the Kremlin. Of course, Russia will dictate a high price for this. The details, or at least some of them, will probably revealed during Alexander Lukashenko’s visit to Moscow in September. Intensification of contacts between the heads of diplomacy and defense as well as, above all, the appearance of the Russian Prime Minister 4
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