THE FOREIGN Secretary has urged Russia to conduct a criminal probe into the poisoning of Putin's biggest rival.
Dominic Raab summoned the Russian Ambassador to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) today to express his concern about Alexei Navalny's alleged poisoning with Novichok.
The 44-year-old has been taken out of an induced coma and is said to be responding to speech at the Berlin hospital where he has been treated since last month.
Mr Raab is said to have told Andrei Kelin the Russian ambassador to the UK, that the use of the banned chemical nerve agent is absolutely unacceptable, and Russia must answer for the actions.
The FCDO has confirmed it will be working to "hold the perpetrators to account" along with international partners.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: “Today the Russian Ambassador to the UK was summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
"The UK Government registered its deep concern with the Russian Government about the poisoning of Alexey Navalny with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.
“The Foreign Secretary has made it clear that it is absolutely unacceptable that a banned chemical weapon has been used, and that violence has again been directed against a leading Russian opposition figure. "There is a case here for Russia to answer. This took place on Russian soil, against a Russian citizen.
"They have international obligations to uphold.
"This is nothing short of an attack against the rules based international system which keeps our societies safe.
“Russia needs to conduct a full, transparent criminal investigation into Mr Navalny’s poisoning. We will work with our partners, including through action in the OPCW, to hold the perpetrators to account.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here