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Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny plans to fly back to Russia on Sunday for the first time since he was poisoned in August, despite the risk of being jailed on his return from Germany. Navalny, who has been receiving treatment in Germany, accuses Putin of ordering his poisoning with the deadly nerve agent Novichok, and some supporters had urged him to stay abroad for his own safety.
Russia’s death toll from Covid-19 could be three times higher than previously thought, according to one of the country’s leading politicians. New data released by Russian statistics agency Rosstat Monday showed that the number of deaths from all causes between January and November had risen by 229,700 compared to the same period last year. The country’s official death toll, reported on a cumulative daily basis by the government’s coronavirus crisis center, stands at 55,827.
Vladimir Putin has denied Russia was behind the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, calling a recent investigation by Bellingcat a “falsification”. “Who needs to poison him,” he said during a nationally televised press conference, denying that Russia’s FSB spy agency was involved. “If they’d wanted to [poison him] then they probably would have finished the job.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the U.S. presidential election, after Biden won the state-by-state Electoral College vote that officially determines the U.S. presidency, the Kremlin said. The Kremlin had said it would wait for the official results of the election before commenting on its outcome, even as other nations congratulated Biden on the win in the days after the Nov. 3 vote.
Russia says one of its warships caught and chased off a US Navy destroyer after it entered territorial waters in the Sea of Japan on Tuesday. Moscow accused the USS John S McCain of traveling 2km (1.2 miles) across its maritime border in Peter the Great Gulf and says it threatened to ram the ship. The US warship then left the area, according to Russia.
Britain and the United States on Monday condemned what they said were a litany of malicious cyberattacks orchestrated by Russian military intelligence, including attempts to disrupt next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. British and U.S. officials said the attacks were conducted by Unit 74455 of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, also known as the Main Centre for Special Technologies.
The EU has announced sanctions against members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including the head of Russia’s domestic spy agency, over the poisoning of the opposition figure Alexei Navalny. The EU said it had agreed sanctions against six people believed to have been involved in the “assassination attempt” against Putin’s most vocal critic. Navalny is still recovering in Germany after falling ill on a flight to Moscow from Siberia in August.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has alleged that Vladimir Putin was behind the poisoning attack that left him fighting for his life. Mr Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is Mr Putin’s fiercest critic, was flown to Germany two days after falling ill on 20 August on a domestic flight in Russia. In his first interview since the attack, he pointed the finger directly at the Russian president.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been discharged from hospital, one month after being flown to Berlin for treatment. In a statement released on Wednesday, the German capital’s Charité hospital said that Navalny’s “condition had improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care” on Tuesday. The Kremlin critic was transferred to Berlin on August 22 after falling ill on a domestic flight in Russia.
Alexei Navalny was poisoned via a water bottle in his Siberian hotel room, according to the Kremlin critic’s entourage. The claim was made via an Instagram post on the politician’s account on Thursday morning. In a video posted to Mr Navalny’s Instagram, his team appears to be searching the hotel room that he had been staying in.